Chopping Wood - There is a lovely wood burning stove thingy in the house. It is essentially a box about 24" by 18" on a short stand. It was a glass front so you can see the fire burning - and it heats the living room wonderfully.
However, as is the case with all fires, they warm you twice. Once when you burn the wood, and once when you cut the wood.
It only took us about three days to burn all the wood that had been previously cut and stacked, so as is the want of a man with a wife, I began to explore the possibility of obtaining more wood.
Matt, Sue's brother who also lives on the property with his wife and family, showed me the chainsaw, the wood pile and an old rusty wheelbarrow with the promise of showing me how to chop wood the next afternoon. I being a Royal Ranger decided I didn't need showing!
So I opened the shed and took out the chainsaw. I read the instructions for starting. I checked the fuel. I primed the chain with chain oil. I put the choke on full as instructed and proceeded to pull the starting cord. I pulled it again. And again. And again. In fact I pulled it so many times that the cord broke and the handle came off in my hand.
No problems I thought. I'm now a man on the land. What would a man on the land do? He certainly wouldn't put the chainsaw in the boot of the Statesman and drive into town to the repair shop. No siree. He would go back to the shed and find a screwdriver and effect the repairs himself. 
So that's what I did. Sue smiled admiringly at me as she saw me stride purposefully, but not fast, towards the shed and return triumphantly, but not too much, to the chainsaw. With the cover removed and the winder/starter gizmo off I unhooked the T shaped hand piece and removed the broken piece of cord. I knotted the remaining piece and put it back on the T-piece.
It was only when I went to screw the winder/starter gizmo that I realized I had created for myself an opportunity of learning something. I had neglected to thread the end of the cord through the hole in the winder/starter thingy before knotting it to the T shaped hand piece. So I reflected on the situation [vocally] for a brief minute and then rectified the situation.
With the starter now back in place, and the chainsaw given enough time to recover from the "flooding" I had given it earlier, it started ok and I was able to saw and then split a huge barrow load of wood that I proudly stacked in the wood box. I wiped my brow, put my hat on the outdoor table and turned to receive the looks of beaming admiration from my darling wife - who came and kissed me passionately on the lips and whispered in that special tone of voice "You're wonderful."
It was then that I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had made the right decision in moving my family to the bush.
8:26:34 AM 
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