Wood Drive

The Boy Scouts do an annual wood drive as a fund raiser to supply the money which the three troops use throughout the year. We have a unique setup now, originally there were two wards that combined their scout troops to create an older troop (16+) and a younger troop (12-15). Well, now there are 3 wards together with an 11 year old troop (this is what used to be blazers), a 12-13 year troop, and a 14 and up troop. For the past couple of decades the troops have bought oak firewood wholesale and resold it the local area. We end up selling about 50 cords of wood. For those who don't know how much that is: a quarter cord will fill up the back of a small pickup. A big pickup might be able to get half a cord if it is piled up pretty high. We had about 40-50 adults and scouts working for 8 hours to deliver all the wood yesterday. I am a little tired today because most of the scouts either leave in the early afternoon or their energy level dies down to the point that they aren't useful for doing the last few loads. The general idea is to rent a bunch of trailers from uhaul and put plywood sides up on them, then a member who has a landscaping company brings a bobcat (those little scooper/tractor things) and loads up the trailers. 11 scoops equals one cord of wood. Then a couple of adults and a couple of scouts pile into the truck to either dump or stack the firewood. The worst is when you find the customer lives up in the hills and has their woodpile 100 yards away and wants the wood stacked, and they ordered a full cord. The best order is when the customer ordered a full cord and wants it dumped on their driveway. Makes me feel bad for the teenage kids in the family that get to stack it later, but, better them than me. No pictures though. Sorry. It was a very impressive amount of wood.

Kathryn is doing great. She is a little uncomfortable when the little guy decides to start tap-dancing on her groin, but she is a trooper and hanging in there. We are sitting in front of a lovely fire as I am writing this. I hope that everyone is doing well and has a very Happy Thanksgiving!!