Saturday May 17th the beginning of charcoal making

The sun woke us up early. Nice to see Mr sunshine after all the rain we've had. I think we are about 10 inches over normal on rainfall already this year.

I quickly made coffee for BT and he headed out the door to Jeremy's to go after slab wood. He would stop pick up the little boys and Jeremy would follow the 1/2 mile down the road on his four-wheeler. They loaded the trailer with oak slabs and unknown to them two of walnut lumber too.

Back at home I was frying panhaas for all of us for breakfast. Brady and Alex had already had an early breakfast of cereal but that didn't stop them from eating more.

The boys kept busy with either Saturday morning cartoons or the Wii games. I did get them outside to play a little, that's when we went to watch BT saw up the slab wood with his antique buck saw that he was powering with his 1941 Farmall H tractor. By early afternoon all the wood was cut into small pieces about 8 inches tall and the width of the board. It was then that he had to hand split all the pieces. Several boards won't make it into the charcoal barrel, as they were walnut, not good for charcoal.

After the boys ate lunch, I put Alex down for his nap and Brady played Wii for a bit, until I took him for a 4 wheeler ride to get the mail. We went and checked on Diane's dog that I was watching for the week and took a spin around the lake. Brady's friend Gavin was playing outside. We asked if he wanted to come up and play Wii with Brady. He was so excited as it was his first 4 wheeler ride (Not so sure his Dad was excited). The boys had fun playing games, riding big wheels and exploring the near by woods. Gavin stayed about an hour and then was ready to go back home.

BT came up about 5:00 and he was beat from the hard work and high humidity. He grilled beef steaks while I made salad and beef noodles for dinner. Lori came about 7:30 to get the boys and then we crashed in the double recliner.