Speaking of Logs ***UPDATE***

The CSA season is coming to a close. This is a good thing because my freezer is packed to near bursting! I seem to be getting better at sticking primarily to locally grown foods. I'm constantly amazed at how many local options we have.

Just stopping by the three or four different farmers' markets that I explored in various towns this summer, I discovered local low spray orchards, wineries, hormone free dairies and meat processing. Personally, I'm not a fan of the meat or dairy venues but at least small local operations have a better chance at more humane conditions and they leave a smaller environmental footprint.

Speaking of smaller environmental footprints, we used the wood stove again last night. Its efficient enough that the two logs I put in before bed were enough to keep the house comfy right through this morning. Some of the logs we had delivered were too long for the opening on our stove. This has been an ongoing issue and we've never found a good way to anchor the logs to cut them.

I remembered something my father had used to hold logs for cutting when I was a kid. It was made of wood and looked like two x's conected by several cross pieces to make it freestanding. The log sat in the v created by the top portion of the x's. I tried to google search this but had no luck. If plans for something like this are out there, I'm betting James can find them. I'll be looking for your input in the comments!

Last night Jim put together his own version of this using leftover 2 x 4's and other scrap wood. He sized the cross pieces so that just by sitting a log on it, you know where to cut to fit it in our stove! He's so ingenious! Don't worry if you can't imagine this, I'll put pictures of this up later on.

I haven't been very food inspired lately. Right now its all about using what's in the fridge and getting on the table by 5:00pm. Its exciting to watch the girls begin working but shuttling them around to jobs is exhausting and time consuming. This, of course, bring me back to the need for alternative transportation options and viable public transportation, as well as, communities designed with these things in mind. Just on the other side of our town, things are much more walker friendly but we live just off of a very busy 6 lane road (can you still call it a road if its 6 lanes across?) that I can't in good conscience let my kids try to cross.

Hindsight is 20/20 but as the kids grow and we begin to plan future chapters of our life, these are things that will have an impact on our decisions.

***UPDATE***
Although James didn't let me down, it was actually Ruthie, that google goddess, who first came up with the name and links to plans for making the log device I described. Its called a sawbuck. Here are some links:

http://www.ericsprojects.com/?
page_id=87

http://www.lcwoodworkers.com/
images/Archive/Sawbuckp.pdf

http://www.motherearthnews.com/
Homesteading-and-Self-Reliance/
1996-10-01/Easier-Log-Cutting-and-Storing.aspx