Our friend Gordon McQuerry came over to help us stack the four cords of wood lying all over the back yard. We are two or three months away from winter, and if you live up here, you know that is awful close. We have two very fine wood stoves that heat our farmhouse evenly and comfortably, they are going 24 hours a day almost every day from late October to the end of April.

We ordered seven cords of firewood from Greg Burch and we had about a half cord left after Gordon left. Maria has her favored stacking techniques (look at the left of the stacked pile). We did it in about 30 minutes, and it was hot and buggy but felt good.

Maria did most of it.

We have a barn full of hay and a woodshed full of wood, about a cord more than we had last year. I have a weird feeling we might need it this winter. Like a lot of people with farms – I am not a farmer – I tend to trust my gut and frostbitten fingers more than weather forecasters.

Mother Earth is angry with us for ignoring her suffering she is trying to get our attention. And she knows how to do it.

And I feel great about being ready for winter in mid-July. When I wait longer, I much regret it.

We also hired Matt Davis to come and mow the lawn this week. Two weeks ago, I pulled a muscle or two in my lower back and standing up and moving quickly has been very painful for me. I have a wonderful chiropractor – Dr. Nancy Burns – and she helped me. I was very careful and today was the first day I felt good enough to toss some firewood around.

I am not good at being idle while other people work.

We might keep Matt around for the rest of the summer, he does an amazing job, he showed up with some big machines and two helpers and they were done in 15 minutes. It took Maria and I about a day all told. Perhaps it’s time to get some help.

I love mowing, and I will fight not to give it up, but sometimes I have to bend to reality.  If I am going to mow, I will have to buy one of those riding mowers, they cost thousands of dollars. Matt Davis is cheaper, and frankly,  better.

I called up the very hard working Davis family and said I needed help, I had injured my back. “What happened?,” asked Astrid, sympathetic.

‘I was mowing,” I said. “Oh,” she said, he’ll be over tomorrow.”

I have to admit it was a hard couple of weeks for me, I couldn’t move without a lot of pain. I am happy it is better, I have so much empathy for people who live in pain, much worse than mine and for much longer. I just want to be careful for a bit.

I always helped stacking wood too, but I thought this was too much too load on Maria, so I asked Gordon to come over and he did a great job stacking.