Friday, January 09, 2015
no more calamities today…except in the mornings excitement I neglected to pick up my phone….found myself standing in the barnyard holding Star Baby and Julie was an uncharacteristic fifteen minute overdue….put Star Baby back in the barn and went to find my phone….sure enough she had called earlier…so I turned the horses out and we rescheduled…Went to cutting wood….cut three nice trees and got some good wood….where I am cutting is near a fence and getting near the power line….I definitely want to control where the trees fall….I normally throw a line over a limb and pull a cable up in the tree and use the tractor to influence the fall….the trees I cut today the lowest limb was just outside my throwing range to get a line over a limb….took a good while to get that third one down….got it down where I wanted it but not yet cut up….supposed to be cold again tonight…was mid forties this afternoon but the wind was sharp and biting…..

Saturday, January 10, 2015
Why must every day have a mini tragedy? I can only assume it is so I will have some continued relevance….This morning while I was fixing my breakfast the little wood stove…the one we have had for 28 years….decided all of a sudden that it was required to fill the house with smoke….This is a catalytic stove and is supposed to be more environmentally friendly but you have to have a phd in smokeology to operate the damned thing…and it stops up the chimney much worse than a regular stove….Chimney cleaning at least once per year is mandatory….This year it had it twice as Marvin brushed it out when he lined the other chimney last month…..I suspect that a second new stove is in our future….we really like the new Ponderosa we got from Northern…well now to go out and tackle the day….
had a good day overall…nothing spectacular …grocery store and feed store and dump and the afternoon was fairly nice, but toward the end of the day it got cold again and I let my hands get cold and the left hand started aching like I had hit it with a sledge hammer….the only way I could sleep was with it wrapped in a heating pad on low….checked with Court and looked at cows…none of the marked AI cows seem to have been in heat since being put with Slim Shady…good sign…

Sunday, January 11, 2015
another cold one…outside thermometer showed 9 degrees…but winds are calm …..so far no calamities and it is supposed to get in the forties but cloudy this afternoon …..left hand still hurts but less than last night….going to let it warm up a little outside and then begin moving wood to the house….I have a lot of wood cut and am cutting for next year now….but I like to have several weeks worth right at the house in case of bad weather where I might have difficulty getting to the piles…did buy a new saw sharpening guide yesterday and a new file…had to break down and sharpen the new chain as it quit throwing flakes and started throwing dust…side note…this fall I have been using a new Stihl synthetic oil additive for the 2 cycle saw and I think it really helps saw performance and starting…bought another six pack of it yesterday….