As fall is right on top of us and winter is FAST approaching, we have been out cutting wood for winter. The woods have been closed due to fire hazards and there was quite the fire up on the mountain burning down towards Cooper Spur so I guess they had good reason, no one wants to see Mt Hood or it's surroundings on fire!!! But now they opened up some permits so we were good to go. We went up to Dee flat and off the beaten path towards Lost Lake we found some nice down logs, even some Red Fir!!! Would have made BEAUTIFUL lumber! Above is the view looking back from where we parked to get the logs out.
This tree is bigger around in person, not sure why it looks so thin in the picture. This was where we hooked the snatch block too (terrible name, but I guess that's what it's called). This nylon strap just squished the dickens out of the bark, and the wood underneath is just pale and wet and pretty. The bark was so pliable. This tree stood tall and made it possible to get out the down logs from in the woods and to the roadside where Jason and James could cut them up and Lauren and I moved the cut up chunks to the trailers. At least the ones we could carry or roll. Even at 16-18 inch lengths, some of those rounds were too big for us to handle and we got in BIG trouble by the guys for even trying!
Here are a couple of the logs we got. They look skinny, but they are pretty substantial and LONG!!! So you know any time you go into the woods for woodcutting, you have to bring a picnic right? We had the BEST picnic! This day was rainy and cold and Lauren and I knew that we needed more than bologna sandwiches!!! Jason and I just bought 1/4 beef and so I brought sirloin steak and a little BBQ. We had the whole fixings complete with Baked Potatoes and soup. Before we left to go wood cutting, I asked Jason to go to the basement and grab 3 steaks, one each for Jason and James and one for Lauren and I to share. He comes back with two packages of sirloin steak and we were assuming there were two steaks in each package since it was HUGE!!! Come to find out, no just one steak in each package so we had two steaks but it was plenty! They were the biggest, best looking sirloin steaks I have EVER seen! We are definitely reordering from the people we bought this beef from next year!
Between the rain, chain saw breakdowns (all three of them), and just random chit chatting since we were all just happy to be with each other, we didn't get as much wood as we would have liked, but we had a good time regardless. We loaded what we cut then put some logs on top that were 16ft long or so.
We got through loading, and night was upon us! It was cold, and still rainy but it was the first cutting in the woods for the season and it was great to be up there in the stillness away from everything. I think time moves a bit slower in the woods. We came out of the woods and went to Jason's folks' house in Hood River to pick up Boomer. We dropped him off that morning to so they could spend some time with their favorite "granddog". They don't have any grand kids mind you so they make the best of what they have! lol Boomer hopped in the 72 Ford with Jason hauling the trailer and I followed behind in my Dodge since the trailer taillights weren't working. It was about 9:30pm when we left Hood River and got on the freeway to travel the 19 miles east along the Columbia River to our home in The Dalles. I was following Jason closely almost the whole way. We were cruising along at probably 70-75mph and were about 5 miles out of The Dalles when I let out of it a bit and all of a sudden I saw Jason in the Ford and trailer in front of me start swirling "S"s across both lanes on the freeway. Sparks were flying, logs were flying everywhere, and I just knew he was going to go straight into the concrete barrier median!!! His driving skills were incredible and he finally got it safely over to the right shoulder, I stopped my truck when the first log went flying and ran as fast as I could up to his truck. He had blown a passenger front tire! Jason was so bummed! He loves this old truck, his grandpa loved this old truck and Jason has got to be one of the most sentimental man I know.
So we couldn't find a spare for the truck due to the wheel being inset or something like that so I called a tow truck. It just so happened that one of our clients just started a tow company and has two brand new rollbacks. I gave him a call and he gave us a HUGE break on the cost and towed us in truck on the rollback and trailer being pulled by the rollback for $100! That is an unheard of deal! We were so lucky! We were so lucky that the damage wasn't greater! We were so lucky that Jason and Boomer weren't hurt and that there weren't any cars in the lane next to Jason! We were so lucky that I had backed off of following so closely right before the tire blew and was able to get stopped myself! We were so lucky that the wood didn't fly into oncoming traffic and injure someone that way! Not the best day, but we were SO lucky! Needless to say, the following day - Sunday, we rested!I am So thankful for that wood! We have been building fires for a little while now and outside it's quite chilly, but it's nice and cozy in our wonderful home! Life is good...time for some cocoa!
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