Chopping Wood

Now there is something unique to New Zealand. They don’t do central heating, and actually trying to explain ours “the house is heated by hot water in pipes” does sound weird. Homes are heated via open fires, log burners or heat pumps which basically heat the air up in your house, and can be used to cool the house down in the summer. As I had only been here a day or two without Stella and therefore not on holiday anymore, I was asked if I’d like to help Jen and Mel chop wood. Mel’s boyfriend Mike is from a farm and there was a huge pile of dry wood, tree which had fallen down or been cut down (in a field with a herd of cows in). Basically, we pulled bits out of the pile for Mike to chop with his chainsaw. I did originally want a go at using the chainsaw but once I saw it in action, I thought that I would leave Mike alone, well he looked like he knew what he was doing. Once the wood was cut, we throw it in the cage on the back of the truck. The chainsaw became blunt after about an hour so it was decided to call it a day. Probably a good thing as Mel had already fallen over. She was stood on a huge tree trunk and was pulling another substantial bit of tree out of the pile, when the tree she was stood on rolled and she fell off it good style. She did seem too ok – 2 days later after a trip to the doctors she has serverly pulled muscels down the back of her neck. Once home, Mike and I climbed onto the truck and threw the logs down to the ground for a wee while, then waited for Jen and Mel to stack them up. Once they’d finished we’d start throwing again. When there wasn’t that many left, I got down from the truck and Mike continued throwing the logs and managed to hit Mel fully on the back of the head!! Ouch.
We’ll have to go out and get another truck full of wood. This is just replacing the wood that they used last winter in the house I am in. I won’t be here to use it, but I enjoyed leaning a hand and as my new phase is becoming “well I’ve got nothing else to do”.
Note to self. Cow poo stains!!! Got some on my jumper and taken 3 washes for it to nearly come out with the help of a stain remover.