The contraption actually works. Here is a photo of Carol feeding a log down the ramp to be cut. I loaded the firewood on the trailer (in the background) and pulled it down to the cutting area. Carol then takes it off a log at a time and feeds it down the ramp. I cut it to length and we then stack it for later use. We had our 30 minutes of Spring in June and now it is summer. We have actually had to have the fan on to cool things off. We have not had any rain recently and still everything is green as you can see behind Carol.
Below is a photo of myself, cutting the firewood to length. It takes about 3 - 4 trailer loads to make a cord of firewood. The new ramp seems to work well and the job seems faster and might just be easier. It is hard to judge the speed of hauling, cutting, splitting and stacking firewood but we are now well on the way to having it complete for this year. A few more rows and we should have enough to get us through the 6-8 months of wood stove season. Better to have a little to much than not enough. Winter can be very long and cold here in the mountains. 
Well, the summer tasks are moving right along and it looks like there will be time left over for recreation. Haven't done any prospecting yet so that is one thing we want to do. Also, camping and getting in some hikes. Next Tuesday the August/September issue of Mother Earth News comes out and there is a feature article in there about us and our lifestyle complete with photo's. If you can get a copy let me know how you like the article as it is the first time I have done anything like this. I'm open to comments and suggestions. 
3 comments:
Hey Bruce, If people can't find a copy of "Mother Earth" magazine, maybe you can share some excerpts from the article here on your blog after it's been out for awhile????
Bruce
We had sent a number of your Mountain Retreat blog emails to Bill's brother David and his wife, Carolyn, in Va. They live just across the meadow from our son Tim in Galax,
Va. which is in the western Va. mountains close to the N.C. border and on the Blue Ridge
Parkway. The New River runs thru, or on the edge of their property. They, too, live in close accomodations with nature and the animals. They get
Mother Earth News magazine and are going to send it to us to see your article.
Can't wait to read it.
Bill and Lois
Barbara: Hope folks can find the magazine but if not maybe I can share parts. I had to sign a contract with Mother which gave them rights to the article in its entirety so might need to check with them. Even though I told them they didn't need to pay for the article they did pay so I guess that is their article now. If I can I will but I've a hunch that they won't allow it right off the go get. Bruce
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