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The Gentleman Farmer

~ Found somewhere in a part of the country known as north Florida and south Georgia…

The Gentleman Farmer

Tag Archives: family

Freshly Shod…

26 Saturday Jun 2021

Posted by thegentlemanfarmer in Family, Living, Passages, Relationships, Style, time

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Tags

boarding school, camp moccasins, children, clothing, college, contemplation, days, family, l. l. bean, life, lost youth, memory, parenting, scad, southern boys, time, woodberry forest school, years, youth

Recently, while sorting through the debris of my life, I came across this book, a reminder of my younger days.

So started a post never completed from July, 2014.  Lord, seven years ago, and I am trying desperately to remember who I was and why I was.

Seven years ago, my oldest had just finished his freshman year at college, living away from home, in a big house with a group of guys, enjoying the summer of knowing that he made it, at least through one year, and that he was on his own.

At the time, the house on Henry, though it never looked this good…

Seven years ago, my youngest was getting ready to ship off to his first year of boarding school.  He was getting an early start, in order to practice with the varsity soccer team.

At the time, gazing into his future…

Seven years ago, I think the chapter in question was this

If I took any of this seriously, forgive me…

Seven years ago, I think the Freshly Shod refers to these

Good ol’ LL…

Seven years ago, I found my inspiration to buy these from this

As I stated earlier, if I took any of this seriously, forgive me…

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Firewood…

12 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by thegentlemanfarmer in Family, Gentleman Farming, Seasons, Totem Hall

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

27-ton, chainsaw, chopping wood, family, farm boss, farm chores, farm equipment, farm tools, fireplace, firewood, front-end loader, hydraulic, kubota, laurel oak, log-splitter, nephew, Quercus hemisphaerica, Quercus virginiana, southern live oak, splitting wood, stihl, troy-bilt, winter fire

So, besides the feeling of power and glory, compensation issues really, the main reason that I chainsaw is for firewood.

laurel oak...

laurel oak…

On the ground is a Laurel Oak (Quercus hemisphaerica) that we took down because it was growing too close to a Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana).  Don’t you just love the Quercus rolls off the tongue?  Go ahead say it really fast three times over.

rounds...

rounds…

After the initial felling, the main trunk is broken down into smaller sections known as rounds, using the Stihl Farm Boss, which I referenced in an earlier post.

loaded...

loaded…

I tractor up and use my front end loader to move the rounds from the tree site to the well house shed where I can split the wood.

setting up shop...

setting up shop with my nephew…

Now, I used to split wood using wedges, hatchets, axes, and mallets, but that was before my enlightenment.  At the shed, out comes one of my favorite boy toys, the Troy-Bilt 27-ton hydraulic log splitter, and a complete exercise in brute power,strength, and dominance.

my nephew experiencing the joy of pure hydraulic power...

my nephew experiencing the joy of pure hydraulic power…

From there it is just what you would expect.  Stack the wood.

stacked and ready to go...

stacked and ready to go…

Burn the wood. Enjoy the life…

the end result...

the end result…

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Recent Background Noise

Perhaps my ennui stems from David Bowie's death. I read somewhere that we should consider ourselves lucky to have lived at the same time he did. I do. Many years ago, there was a girl in my secondary school, Debbie P., who was very hip, very groovy, and very pretty. Now I attended Catholic schools and so, as you might imagine, we had to wear uniforms, except, of course, for after-school activity, and that's where I get to the point of the story. Our school was putting on its big play of the year, I had a small part, Debbie was working backstage. One evening during rehearsal she showed up wearing a Ziggy Stardust tee-shirt. I was young, naive, not hip, not groovy, and not knowing who the ambiguous Ziggy might be. During the weekend that followed that rehearsal, I went to a record store and discovered just what David Bowie was all about. It was a transforming experience. Now some forty years later, I farm, David is dead, and Debbie is into Christian rock bands. Did I say ennui...

Recent Bedside Read

Granny's Wonderful Chair is still my bedside read for reasons discussed nearby...

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