Winter Work
Both my uncles used to cut all their firewood for the next winter, and when it was in operation also for the sugar camp during the coldest winter months. No bugs, and you did not lose the tractor in the swamp on the way to and from the bush either. Maple spilts like a knife into butter on a really cold day with an 8 lb maul;, and then we would stack it alongside the barn to dry. Uncle K would cut 5 to 6 full cords for the furnace, and all the limb wood would be cut up for the kitchen stove, and his cutting buddy Robert would cut all the wood he needed for heat alongside him. I miss those days, the farm near Sherbroke, QC and the never ending supply of wood for my fireplace. Some days I wish I had bought the place when my aunt sold it in 2000. Uncle G would but up several large lodgepole pines for his furnace out west in the area just west of Kamloops, BC. I worked at least three days out of five outdoors here in Ottawa last winter doing removals, pruning and some cabling with the first firm I worked with. Frosty some days yes, but I was not cold in arctic Carhardts and Sorel Steel Toes, most days I only wore unlined coveralls over my chainsaw pants, but below -20F pulled on the lined ones in addition to my jacket. Guess I got used to the cold living in a tent at -50F in Wainwright, AB and Goose Bay, LB when I was Airborne. I would prefer working in the cold to that dreadful 115F humidex we had last summer, anyday.
