Has it been a week already? Where does the time go? There must be a little hole in the sky that lets time slip through into the vastness of space. Perhaps it's due to the depleted ozone layer or interruptions in the space-time continuum caused by too much negative thought energy.

Then again, maybe I'm just too busy.

But regardless, another week has indeed passed into the history of the world and the present week also is passing by just as quickly.

I wrote last week about too much work making my life, and column, dull. However, I did take an evening off last week to just relax and pretty much do nothing. It's almost scary how good I am at doing nothing. So scary, in fact, that I fear that if I do too much nothing, I'll end up doing nothing all the time.

I've always been a person taken with extremes to some extent. For instance, I try to get all the work done in one day sometimes, putting in massive long hours and going to the point of complete fatigue. Other times, I have a hard time just getting my motor running.

Since I detest laziness in all its forms, I tend to push myself in the other direction. I dilligently seek after my own sense of accomplishment.

So then I find myself watching the days go, one at a time, rapid-fire, like shooting a machine gun into the dark until the cartridges are spent and the barrel is white hot. Perhaps the shots are fired to no avail, perhaps much is accomplished, but I'll not know until the proverbial sunrise. In the meantime, I keep shooting.

Waxing poetic seems to be the order of the day as I write this, but that's quite all right. Just remember, if you don't like this, realize that I could be writing about something even more boring.

I spent a couple of afternoons at home this past week trying to get some of my household chores caught up. It was then that I finally finished cleaning up the remainder of the limbs and brush and such that had fallen during the ice storms.

I recently heard that the county got federal assistance to help with the limb cleanup effort, but sadly the National Guard wasn't available to clean up the multiple truckloads of limbs out of my yard. I could have used them.

There is still some raking to be done and a little more cleanup after that, but anything that would bother me if it were run over by the lawnmower has been fairly well handled. Then again, I probably run over more things with the lawnmower than I should. I also buy blades every couple of years.

It took a total of two days work for the latest round, not counting the day it took in early January to clean up the last limb mess.

While the National Guard didn't show, I did have a good friend who came by and helped me. At the time, I had a bed and some other furnishings on my truck. Luckily for me, he also has a truck.

It turned out fairly unluckily for him, though. Just as we were getting started, he put a limb on top of the truck and it fell over and hit his back window, breaking it. It shattered, mostly outwardly, in tiny crumbles, glistening tinted chunks of glass.

It was one of those heart-sinkers. I've had them lots of times, like when a piece of wood skips over the pile when thrown on the truck and bounces off the back glass. Or you accidentally drop some priceless family heirloom and then have to look and see if it broke or not.

In his case, he got off fairly well. He went to the glass installation place and found out that they had several used windows that they would install for about half the cost. However, it was still a significant expense for helping a friend haul a few limbs.

As for the limbs, it's hard to believe that there could still be any remnant of the winter left with the sun shining, but the broken limbs and the trees' white scars show in sharp contrast to the green needles and red budding leaves.

Of course I wasn't all that interested in paying attention to the look of things when I was in the middle of picking up all that tree refuse.

At least a small part of it came from the maple tree and might turn into semi-usable firewood; more than I can say for all that white pine. It seems strange to be concerned about firewood now, but I have already started gathering next year's supply.

In fact, I was out one evening last week cutting a load of wood that was given to me by the same fellow who helped me last year. I still had enough in front of the house to make up a little over a truckload, so I'm already well on my way.

Even if I had plenty, it's hard to pass up on firewood. I know I'll need it if the world doesn't end or unless summer just keeps going. I always say that I'm going to start up on this stuff early, but this is the first year it might actually end up being true.

I took my helper with me, my oldest daughter. I was very impressed with how hard she worked that day. I would carry the wood to the truck and she would stack it neatly in rows. I never stack the wood, instead just throwing it and letting it land however it does. It's surprising how much wood I could load as she kept it neatly stacked.

Besides the place to work, the world's best helper, a good saw to cut it and the truck to haul it, I have a new weapon this year in the firewood battle. A friend and I recently went in on a motorized hydraulic wood splitter, which I've already put to work at the house.

This past winter, I actually got through the winter without borrowing one, instead splitting every piece that was too big for the stove with the maul, ax and wedges. There were several days in which I was out with the temperature hovering well below freezing with my shirt wet with sweat under my coat. It was good exercise during the slow time, but I would have liked to have had a little less of it. Nonetheless, I was pleased to know that I could do that and make it through a winter.

In years past, I had always asked a friend to bring a splitter or paid someone to bring one over and help me get the bulk of it ready. Now that my friend and I have a splitter to share, I can easily split the wood as I haul it in or even on site for the first time. All of those big logs that had been causing me to nearly break my back will now get broken. That alone is worth the price.
 

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