So…yesterday had a lot going on. Fred and his helper and 2 of Fred’s dogs and 1 of his helper’s dogs, showed up as promised at 9:30 a.m. to work in the woods. Fred was here late last Summer and did a lot of cleanup and firewood splitting and stacking. When I called him for this round, I let him know he could bring his dogs…in fact I kind of pleaded with him to bring his dogs.

Two of the chores were in close proximity: a nice larch that was too crowded where it stood, but great firewood for Winter 2012-13 was marked to come down and the slash pile right next to it needed to be burned.

Fred felled the larch right onto the slash pile making in quite convenient as he limbed the larch…

After the larch was limbed and cut to lengths…and the lengths moved away, the slash pile was lit. The dogs supervised and/or just had fun.

I LOVED that the dogs were here. They were all happy, happy, joy, joy and it was good for me to just be able to love them.

And I loved that Fred and his helper were here to burn that humongous slash pile. They hosed down the nearby trees and kept an eye on the first big flames, controlling them so that there was no heat damage to those close trees – excellent !

When the fire needed less of their attention, they turned to splitting and stacking…

And the larch plus a bit of a tree from last year are staged to dry for future.

This morning, the slash pile was just a pile of smoldering ash. It will smolder, sputter, flame a bit and repeat for 10-14 days probably. I like this part as I can go out in the early morning or late evening and sit and watch and listen to the fire.

And then…today, Wednesday, I needed to run to town and stopped for a few items. Tomatoes were on my list. I saw these that were labeled Heirloom tomatoes. They look funny and interesting and so I bought some. And I wasn’t really paying attention to the price…until I got home and looked at my receipt… $3.98 per pound …total for 2 tomatoes was $8.98. I REALLY hope these are good… Anybody have any suggestions about what I should do with tomotoes that cost $4.49 each ???

Meanwhile, it is 72F…on the front porch.