Wood it, or wood it not
Crikey is that the time!
Yesterday I had a telephone conversation with the man who is delivering our wood, I believe he said that he would be delivering it to us at 8am. Brian woke early and headed downstairs, but I must have nodded off again.
Just as Brian had been fearing, it was being delivered in a rather large tractor and trailer setup. The issue of course for us is our gate, the opening is not that wide, and the capping stones on the pillars stick out a deceivingly long way for taller vehicles. So large vehicles are always a concern for Brian.
‘Hoorah!’ I called out from the first floor window, trying to lighten the mood before I went out to join in the fun, ‘how good is that’ I exclaimed, not really sure I convinced Brian. The Woodman got out of the tractor and came over to say good morning, and shook our hands, a very normal greeting in France. He eyed up the yard, and the gate, and asked where we were putting it? I showed him our wood store in the far barn. ‘D’accord’, he said brightly. So off he went and jumped back into his tractor. Not sure what else he could do, and maybe to get as far out of the way as possible, Brian ran upstairs for a better view.
With inches to spare he seamlessly manoeuvred the tractor and trailer backwards through the gate, adjusting it slightly, so that he could drop the wood right where we were going to stack it. As we always find with these chaps his manoeuvring skills were unsurpassable.
With the vehicle comfortably in place he opened up the back and started to tilt the trailer.
Brian jumped out of the way, and I decided to watch from afar, just hoping that it wouldn’t land on my little box tree. Minutes later we had a very healthy pile of excellent firewood, and were having a wonderful little chat with the woodman, before he headed off. It’s lovely how they always have time for a friendly chat, and don’t just speed away.
As it was so early, and not be rushed into things, we had a quick coffee and a slice of toast, before we started the job of stacking the wood.
We sorted the wood as we went, into small, medium, and large pieces. Some would need splitting, but that can be done over the winter.
Good, honest, hard work, and a great start to the day.
