Please note that this all but raw and unedited.
North Idaho Diary, Entry 1-14-2009
Yesterday my five-year-old and I went to Johnson’s to cut firewood and remove the snow off the Quonset hut. Simple task, noooo!! The firewood part required digging a tunnel through the snow to the buried pile of logs. Then shoveling the snow off the pile, making enough room for me and a chainsaw (Chainsaw is small, luckily.), then dislodging a log to cut.
Sure!
Frozen logs come apart like grape juice comes off your white shirt. Pry pry pry kick kick kick curse curse curse, and, when all else fails, chainsaw in place, then repeat process–pry pry pry kick kick kick curse louder curse louder curse even louder…pop. That is for just one piece!!! Who needs wood heat when I get hot and sweaty getting one measly log.
So I decide it’s time for a break. I’ll work on the Quonset hut with the glacier embedded in the sagging top.
Smart man that I am, I hook up the propane heater inside and close the front flap. Theory; snow will melt and slide off the top, end of problem. If only…
I go back and cut two more pieces of firewood repeating process as described earlier, with the exception of being more tired and using more abusive vernacular. (Maybe I can scare the ice off of the logs.)
I return to hut to see the progress. …Yeah progress! It’s a humid, dripping mess inside with the snow stuck on top, still. …Except now it’s getting heavier as the roof sags inward even more.
Okay. I grab a 10 foot piece of 4×4 and begin smacking the snow from underneath.
Hooray! It’s coming off. …Oh. And I’m getting soaked by the waterfall leaking through the roof as it melts. Another problem is that, after about ten smacks with the 4×4, my muscles go “nooo, we’re tired. Please stop.” I respond, letting my muscles know that this must get done, and they have to help. I swear they whisper, “You’ll be ’sorey’.” So now I’m smacking snow–smack smack smack–and getting drenched–drip drip kawoosh–and, of course, cursing–curse curse curse.
Hours pass, and I’ve gotten almost all the snow off the hut except one spot. But I’m hungry, tired, and feel like I could swim in my clothes. So I shut the heater off and figure I’ll get it with next load of firewood.
Oh firewood! Shit!!!
Back to cutting firewood. Repeat process only now it’s in slow motion. But I manage to fill the truck, and we leave for home. 5-year-old, luckily, played with the dog the whole time and hopefully won’t be repeating Daddy’s words of encouragement to others…like Mom!
Lunch, water (to drink), and a change of clothes, and it’s back to work: Unload firewood. But now I have the kids to help so it goes twice as fast, the bonus of the day.
Back in the truck and off for more wood and the dreaded hut of hell!! I start with the firewood, and I’ve cleared enough that it actually is going smooth. Fill the truck, and now it’s time for the last piece of the glacier on the quanset.
Smack smack smack.
Won’t budge. In fact, it’s sagging towards me even more!! So I climb on top of an off balance barrel and put one foot on a stack of boxes.
Push push push, drip drip drip curse curse curse.
A little piece rolls off. Yeah! …But the bulk is still there, and now I’m soaked, again.
I push-smack-curse all at ounce and, boom, it slides off…at the same time the barrel falls over and the boxes sway–oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!!!
…I survived without injury, and no damage to anything. (Amazing, I thought.)
That was yesterday. Needless to say I’m tired and sore today, and now I am going to unload the firewood left from yesterday, but Ithought you’d get a kick out of my Tuesday adventure.
Have a great day,
Max
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