Project 52: Week Two

I grew up in the sticks of southern Virginia.

Trees. Cows. Tobacco.  That's about it.

I spent my summer days climbing trees, weaving "hammocks," carving sticks, building forts, and getting dirty. I was then and always will be an outdoors kind of girl.

And then I grew up and went off to college, graduated, became a teacher, got married, had some kids, and moved back to the East Coast.  And bought a house.  And then bought a wood stove.

My dear husband was home for the first two weeks we had the wood stove, and kept the fire burning nicely so that we could all be warm.  Then he went back to work and left the fire building to me.  All was well (of course I know how to build a fire!) until the fire went out and there was NO kindling left in the garage except the pile of very GREEN kindling that even my dear husband couldn't get to burn.  I needed to take some of our firewood and chop it into nice little slivers of log to use as kindling since the sticks outside were all damp from the rainy weather.  I have NEVER chopped wood in my LIFE.

Enter Project 52.

Of course, I attempted this project WITHOUT adult supervision, and while my dear husband was gone, so he couldn't mock me for "choking up on the handle" or "swinging the ax all wrong."

My chopping block in the garage (did you think I was going to go OUTSIDE in the freezing weather?!).

The kindling in the picture is the green stuff...not mine...

My weapon of choice (by default, since there wasn't anything else).

Since I didn't trust my children to take a non-blurry picture with my flash-less camera (I couldn't even manage it) while I was swinging the pulaski around, there are NO pictures of me actually chopping the wood.  But I promise I did it.  And those logs sitting in the trailer...turned into these nice pieces of kindling.

Even with the HOURS of experience I now have (haha), my husband still isn't allowed to watch me chop kindling...I'm probably still doing it wrong...