Keeping the wood burner burning is a fairly high maintenance labour of love. Just over a ton of logs were delivered to the cottage on the 18th December and it is now exactly two months later and they are almost gone. Over these last two months I have moved these from the drovers cottage to the main house via the chopping area.

This has been hard work but the process of splitting logs is most satisfying… apart from the occasional knot where the bastard log will not give up without a fight. Over the last few weeks I have honed my splitting skills. I am satisfied that I can place the axe exactly and split the log completely and swiftly in two perfect halves. This reminds me everytime that where you look is where you go. If I loose my focus then the axe glances off the log and flies away out of control. The same focus is required when asking a horse to jump a fence. In turning for the fence eyes focus on the fence with sharp precision…this is important for every fence and more so with skinnies. In the approach to the fence, focus should shift to some distance beyond the fence and then the next fence. In training, this skill is practised over and over again until it becomes something we can do without thinking… without being aware of looking and making increasingly fine adjustments. Focus and positioning becomes second nature… like splitting logs.

The log above was a tricky customer. I think it took about ten or 12 swings of the axe before it split. I had to remove my jacket around swing six and there was a lot of swearing and grunting… it was touch and go and I nearly gave up.

Struggling with these knots got me thinking and I wondered if this is where the mildly abusive term ‘get knotted’ came from. I’m not a fan of non sweary terms of abuse as they usually sound quite pathetic and ‘get knotted’ is never going to be as satisfying or effective as the plain and simple ‘fuck off’. This doesn’t make sense really since chopping knotted logs is a lot less enjoyable than having sex.

Most of the logs require drying out. Stacking them on top of the woodburner fast forwards this process sometimes with quite alarming consequences such as filling the house with smoke and even catching fire. Splitting these rapidly drying out, sometimes smoking, logs can be quite dramatic as they split and release steam.

Hiking boots drying by the stove and night lights burning in the bread oven. Ahhhhh…just love a fire and have even managed to cook supper on the stove … makes great jacket potatoes too

Snowdrops… between drovers cottage log store and the main house…. a sign that there is something better just around the corner 😊

• Uncategorized