One Down

The wood stove is installed and working perfectly. That means that one project is done and I have ten thousand more to go. The next headache…I mean project…is to repair, apply sealant, and stain one side of the house. Most of the upper logs have been completed. I still need to clean up the white panels and prepare them for primer and paint. The middle section of logs will require a major repair (see an earlier post). I decided to leave that for later. Since the scaffolding is on borrowed time, I need to make the best use of it. The weather has been stable, but each day begins with mist and the temperature gradually warms as the day progresses. This pattern should continue for another day or two before it starts to get really cold. I’m at the mercy of mother-nature which means that I can only do what I can do.  I’ll continue removing the grey wood along with the mildew using a product called “Wood Renew”. The stuff is amazing and it doesn’t harm the environment. Just mix it up, brush it on, wait ten minutes, and scrub the remaining gunk off. Like magic, the original wood color appears. I’ll post before and after pictures as soon as I get around to it.

Our friends and neighbors have been kind enough to provide us with some hardwoods to burn in our new stove. The problems are that we don’t have a place to store seasoned wood and the wood needs to be cut into 45cm pieces. We purchased a wood splitter in the U.S., but we need a chainsaw. A good chainsaw is expensive in Japan. I feel uncomfortable asking our neighbor to use her chainsaw all the time. We’ll try to shop around for one this week. I wish we could find a good used one, but I know I’m dreaming. Our front yard has a truck load of starter wood in one pile and a truckload of logs in another. We are expecting another 2 tons of wood to appear next week. It sounds like a lot of wood, but I was told that we may not have enough wood to get us through the winter. We’ll see how it goes. As the season gets colder, the price of firewood rises. Hopefully, we’ll make it through our first winter without freezing to death.