Winter Preparations

Every day for the last few weeks the sound of chain saws and log splitters have been reverberating around this Meister compound. Everyone is busy preparing for the coming winter. We were blessed with a lot of logs that needed cutting and splitting, enough for everyone living out here. And as I drove around the neighborhood this evening with the golf cart helping Mark move logs I snapped a few pictures.

 Above Mark is cutting up a log into more easily handled lengths and below is the log pile everyone out here is working on. The story of these logs happens to be an interesting one. A couple years ago we heard someone sawing down the big oak and walnut trees on the property. I took the golf cart over to talk to the men doing this and they told me they were hired to cut them down by the property owner who had contracted a lumber company. Turned out they were on the wrong property. The lumber company paid mom for the walnut trees that had been cut down and stacked up the oak trees which we thought they were going to come get but after 2 years went by Spark called the company and told them these were not going to even be good for firewood if left much longer. We think they forgot the pile was there but after this long they no longer wanted the logs giving us permission to use them for firewood. 

 These logs are well seasoned, oak and will help all of us out here that use wood for warmth survive the coming winter. Everywhere I drove had piles of wood. Below is a pile by Spark's house.

 Mark used the skid steer to deliver these logs to Spark's house for splitting once Spark gets home from Gulf Shores. 

 Below Berlica is getting ready to climb on top of one of these huge logs. 

 Joan and her children split and stacked wood for hours on Saturday. She has the largest house in the neighborhood and has 2 wood burners to keep supplied. The next few pictures were all taken at her house.

 Rachel and David have been busy splitting too but I didn't take the time to photograph their stacks. Some of these logs were so heavy Mark needed the skid steer to roll them so he could cut all the way through.

At our place we have a pile in the barn for the apartment wood burner, a pile in our lean to, and a pile on our porch for our 2 wood burners in our little house. Mark thinks we will only be using 1 of them but this year I am determined to stay warm for the first time since we moved here so will probably keep both burning if the winter is hard. It is so satisfying to have a good supply of split stacked wood all ready. We still need to bring home some pallets to cut up for kindling.
This morning a new round bale was put in the far paddock then all 6 of the weanlings moved over there while another new bale was put in their paddock. Looking them over, Sheena's colt is looking a little pot bellied, he was de-wormed and then he, Ayanna's colt and Lily's filly were moved back over leaving Zalena's filly, Indy's filly and Soul's filly together in the last paddock. I think Sheena's colt was losing out on the grain with all 6 of them together. Now we have 3 in one paddock and 3 in the other.
Oksana was brought out teased and covered by Evan then moved into the paddock next to him.
Next on my job list today was to let my fingers do the walking...we are serving lunch on Sunday at the Peoria church. The meat and cheese were ordered from Beechams in Tremont, the croissant donuts Fedi likes so much along with chocolate cupcakes were ordered from Schnucks, the monster cookies, the chocolate chip cookies and the peanut butter cookies were ordered from HyVee and 30 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts were ordered from Krispy Kreme in Bloomington which Ben and Taunya will pick up Sunday morning and bring to Peoria. Isn't it great having family from Bloomington! Ahh fresh baked Krispy Kremes of which I ordered 3 kinds, glazed with the Kreme filling, salted caramel latte and double chocolate filled, now if that doesn't start the mouth juices flowing your mind isn't working very well. For those more health conscious, The rolls, fruit and vegetables will be picked up at Sam's Club on Saturday along with the chips, nuts, and a few other items. I ordered plenty and would love to have anyone one that thought maybe they would like to visit an AC church sometime to come visit Peoria. We would love to have you, your soul and body can be fed. The morning service starts at 10:00 am, we break for lunch then the afternoon service starts at 12:15 with singing before both services.