Preparing for Winter

While walking around, inspecting the barns for repairs (and pointing them out to my husband who was mowing the grass), I looked inside the "wood" barn.

We call this barn the "wood" barn, because it's been the one barn we store our wood in.  

 A portion of wood stacked 2 years ago.

My arms dropped, my head dropped, and I took a deep breath.  We are gonna need to start splitting wood early this year.  We had many cold days last season, and we used more than we thought.

I started making a list of what I need to get done before October:

~split wood
~get chimney swept
~power wash the house 
~re-do the corn burner piping so it keeps the soot away from the house
~build top split barn door and attach
~build side door and attach for goat barn
~tear down "emergency" coop, and re-build it larger
~set up a second heat lamp for the chickens
~sew Jesse's winter coat (our smallest dog)

.......and the list continues.


I figure, with a list, I could get focused and get the family to help.  

Last year I split over a cord of wood by hand.  This year, my husband's nephew purchased a wood splitter.  We've been trading tools this summer and last.  This way neither of us have to buy everything.  This summer we loaned out our tiller, and in exchange borrowed the trimmer (however it's not feeding the string and will need some work done on it).  We will borrow the power washer and in exchange loan out other needed tools (or barter with helping do work).