New wood cycle begun today.

Fred got the first two of seven cords of wood delivered today. No huge log-length pile waiting to be cut up and split this year! Just one heck of a lot of wood all of a sudden ready to stack. We'll both be working at it for a few weeks. It would probably dry ok in the pile, but will do better stacked neatly in rows. We try to go by the rule for stacking it that says leave spaces "large enough for the mouse but too small for the cat." Fred's better at it than I am. I always thought I was a pretty good wood piler, but the first couple of years we cut it in our woods and stacked it, most of my stacks fell over - his didn't. Hard for a farm-girl to take, but most of my stacking experience was in a woodshed where there were walls to stack between. Out in the woods, it all depends on where you stack it, I've found. I thought finding just the right spot between two trees would be good, then you don't need to worry about squaring off the ends of each run, but that didn't work very well. It seems that when there's a good wind, the whole thing shifts when the trees sway and eventually falls over. Now we lay logs down to keep the first run off the ground and go as high as we can reach comfortably, squaring off the ends of each run with a criss-crossed layer - and every night before we leave whatever we've stacked, we brace the whole thing with fence-post length logs. It isn't pretty, but it's a heck of a lot better than hearing the darned pile go down with a rumble in the middle of the night because the ground beneath it heaved with frost. I don't know many folks who have worked with wood piles who haven't heard that dreaded sound at one time or another, although some won't admit to it!

I have just made an updated version of the Joe's Pond Directory available to anyone who wants to buy it in print. Go to "Joe's Pond Association" on the home page and about half way down the menu you'll see "2008 Joe's Pond Directory in print" - click on that and it will take you directly to where you can order as many copies as you want on line. I plan to make the printed version available annually, but there's no need of buying it each year unless you like having a fresh copy because I'll post changes here on the blog regularly and you can pencil them in. My 2003 copy was too messed up, so I ordered myself a copy right away. We'll keep the on-line directory up to date as changes come about, too, so you can always just go on-line and find what you need.

Here's something fun and helpful to people who are hungry. FreeRice donates to The United Nations World Food Program, and the rice is paid for by the advertisers you'll see at the bottom of the FreeRice page. Click on the link below. I played long enough to donate 1,000 grains yesterday and today I did another 2,000 grains in between answering e-mail and other stuff. It's fun, and if you enjoy a vocabulary challenge, you'll like doing this. Great for kids, too!

Link to FreeRice