October 2, 2011 - Getting Ready for Winter

Last year we spent many hours cutting birch wood into lengths that would fit into our wood boiler.  Then JW would spend time each weekend splitting wood to keep enough ready for us for the week.

This year, we decided it would be a good idea to rent a log splitter and spend quality time splitting wood.  We scheduled it for the first weekend of October so since the store opened at 9 am., JW headed down to College Avenue about 8:30 to pick up the machine.

He brought it home and we set it up so we could get busy on the stacks of wood in front of the house.

When he got home, we set up the splitter and dove in.  We split a number of logs but soon found we were having to move a lot of logs out of the way because they were a little long for a 24" log splitter.  JW decided to grab the chain saw and cut logs.  But he discovered he didn't have enough 2 cycle oil so I drove back down the 7+ miles to College Avenue to pick some up.

I got home and we continued work on the logs - cutting them into shorter lengths.  The plan was to get all of them cut shorter and then go back through the pile and split them.  We worked until noon and stopped long enough for lunch.  Then back outside where JW struggled with his old chain saw.

The previous weekend, I started going through papers in the file cabinet and started scanning them into the computer.  As I went through the folder with the pay statements in, I came across a gift card that JW had received from work shortly after he moved up here.  Fortunately, it was a Wells Fargo gift card and they do not start losing value after 12 months.  The value on the card was $325 - found money and since I found it, I decided I got it.

Well, it was a good dream anyway.  We decided we needed to get a new chain saw so for the 3rd time that day, we headed down the hill to College Avenue to pick up a new chain saw.  Fortunately it was only a little more than the gift card's value so a few dollars poorer, we headed back home and finished cutting all of the logs into shorter lengths.

Once that was done, we went back through the cut logs and sent them through the splitter.  It was amazing how quickly that thing could split logs.

We worked until 4:00 PM at which time we went into the house and cleaned up so we could go out to dinner.  While JW was showering, I decided to call The Pump House and see if we could get in.  We hadn't been there in over a year so decided to give it another try.

Let's go to the Pump House.

Yes this is an old gas station pump but that is not why it is called the Pump  House.  The name has something to do with Gold Mining and dredges but the history on the place says only:

A Historical Monument.......
The Pump House as you see it today was reconstructed in the spring of 1978. Our purpose was to attempt to recreate and 1890's "Gold Rush" motif and atmosphere which was associated with the "Rip Roaring" but still Victorian era in Fairbanks. Everywhere you look you will see relics from the rich and illustrious past. 

How about a musher and sled dog team hanging from the ceiling.

Had to put my granny glasses on to read the menu - 6 pages of tasty stuff.  On the wall to the left of me are a bunch of containers for cylinders for the numerous Victrola's around the dining room.  I don't know if they each had a cylinder inside but there were hundreds of them.

JW ordered salmon.  As for me, I decided to try

Chicken Denali
Boneless breast of chicken, topped with King crab & stacked high with artichokes
& mushrooms, served on top of Yukon Gold au gratin potatoes.


It was delicious.  Only bad thing was that I should have stopped about halfway through instead of stuffing the whole thing down my throat.

We got done and headed home to relax a little before lights out.

On the morning of Oct 2, we got up and had breakfast then went out to finish up the wood in front of the house.

We hadn't split much wood when the splitter ran out of fuel  and had to be refilled.  

Split wood ready to be stacked.

It took us about an hour to finish splitting this pile of wood.  Then it was time to move over behind the shop and work on that wood.  We decided on a different tactic this go around.  We would pull off a log from the stack, saw off just enough of the length (3 to 6") so that the log would fit in the splitter.  Then we'd split it and move onto the next log.

We worked until noon and had finished 2 of the 8 or 9 stacks of logs behind the shop.  At that time, the splitter ran out of gas again and we decided to call it quits for the weekend.  We felt like we had a good start and while the wood may not last us all winter we don't really have a good feeling yet for how much wood is needed.

JW spent time over the next week stacking the wood so now it is easy to get too and throw into the boiler.

I think we are ready so LET IT SNOW!!!