It’s said that wood warms you twice through – once when you cut and stack it, once when you burn it. Well, the logs come ready chopped. But the lorry dumps its load of wood outside the entrance on the pavement. No way of the truck getting round the back to the wood-store. Thermals on, and wheelbarrow at the ready, we begin the process of shifting it all. The first barrow full is loaded. Transported through the alleyway and round the back. There, ready to stack log on log, my dad stands in the wood shed. Tip the wheelbarrow up. Deposit the load. Start the process again. Accompanied by my mum and her ‘vehicle reversing’ sound, and me, pretending to be a dumper truck, the time passes swiftly. An occasional pause to greet passersby. 17 barrowloads. Several armfuls. A bag full of sweepings for kindling. Firewood supply topped up, ready for the cold snap. We finish just as the first flakes of snow appear, whirling down from the sky. Inside to hot chocolate and comfortable chairs. And tonight, a blazing fire in the hearth.
iggandfriends 
January 16, 2013 at 8:45 pm
Your Mum puts a smile on my face today, Igga&…,
my own is visiting soon, and flying for the first time!
January 16, 2013 at 8:49 pm
We’re good in this family at making work fun. Little things to make you smile. Hope your mum enjoys her flight, and that you enjoy her visit.
January 16, 2013 at 10:47 pm
The wood grows faster up your way. I estimate the chunks are between 25-30 years old. Where I am from they’d need to be 30-40 years old to be that big. What kind of wood I wonder? Where I am we burn black spruce and balsam fir a lot. It has such a nice smell! Most, though, prefer birch; it packs about twice the ‘heat whallop’ into every chunk. Lacks the lovely small of the fir, though. The old-timers don’t say ‘fir.’ To them it’s ‘var.’
January 17, 2013 at 8:39 am
My dad informs me that we have a mixture of wood – some spruce, some birch, some pine and some unidentified. Apparently it’s mostly seasoned hardwood. From a local guy who owns his own patch of sustainable woodland, so most of it is from clearing and coppicing. It’s quite a gentle climate here on the Machars – we’re on the edge of the Gulf Stream.