Firewood, Goats and A Good Book

Well I have finally got all the firewood split and stacked. I think I should have enough ready for 3 winters stored. I am glad to finally have this chore done and over with. I can rest a little easier knowing that I can keep my family warm if the electricty where to go out. This is all hardwood save for a few pieces of poplar that will be used as kindlin to start the fires. As you can see I took advantage of a few pine trees to help hold the wood in place. These are now covered with plastic and tarps to keep the weather out. On nice sunny days I will uncover the wood so it can get a good breath of fresh air which will help dry it further.


In the background you can see some of the wood storage, nothing fancy just a place to keep it dry. I had planned on building a large wood shed this year but it just never seemed to happen. Like many other things around here. lol Well there's always next year, or at least I hope there is.

A faithful reader of this blog, Cath, has ask for some information about goats and shown interest in owning some of her own. After some thought on the matter I have decided that I am going to write a series on goats and what few things I have learned from them and about them. So stay tuned, coming to a monitor near you this weekend, "A little about Goats" - Part I. Until then here are a few pictures of my girls just hanging out in the yard.

"Look, there's daddy, is that food that he has in his hand?"

Daisy resting up to have those kids soon, I hope. Maybe she's just lazy.
Emily investigating the wood pile. She is so nosey.
Lou Lou asking " What am I supposed to do with all this, I can't eat it, can I?"
Zoro's Field

Got a new book from Amazon today and can't wait to dive into it. My cousin, who lives near Statesville NC, had told me about it in a phone conversation a few weeks ago, he knew it was my kind of book. After hearing about it and reading the following from Amazon's review I just had to have it. I have also place an Amazon link to the book for those who might also like to own a copy. Well, I have a 1000 things to do but 999 of them will have to wait as I hope to lose myself in the pages of Zoro's Field.

Review from Amazon's page:

After a long absence from his native southern Appalachians, Thomas Rain Crowe returned to live alone deep in the North Carolina woods. This is Crowe's chronicle of that time when, for four years, he survived by his own hand without electricity, plumbing, modern-day transportation, or regular income. It is a Walden for today, paced to nature's rhythms and cycles and filled with a wisdom one gains only through the pursuit of a consciously simple, spiritual, environmentally responsible life.
Crowe made his home in a small cabin he had helped to build years before-at a restless age when he could not have imagined that the place would one day call him back. The cabin sat on what was once the farm of an old mountain man named Zoro Guice. As we absorb Crowe's sharp observations on southern Appalachian natural history, we also come to know Zoro and the other singular folk who showed Crowe the mountain ways that would see him through those four years.
Crowe writes of many things: digging a root cellar, being a good listener, gathering wood, living in the moment, tending a mountain garden. He explores profound questions on wilderness, self-sufficiency, urban growth, and ecological overload. Yet we are never burdened by their weight but rather enriched by his thoughtfulness and delighted by his storytelling.