Cabin Log Piles – Prep Work

Hello and welcome to another update! I know it has been a while, but the summer months are quite busy outside of homestead work. Plus, sometimes I am just lazy when it comes to writing on the blog 😀

As mentioned in my last post, I had a little preparation work to do before I could start sorting through the two remaining cabin log piles. The main work was getting rid of the pools of water that were in front of the log piles. 

At first I did try to move the water manually with a five gallon bucket. I got some water moved, but it was quickly apparent that pumps were invented for a reason. After a little research I found a small electrical pump that was designed to move standing water from your yard which could be breeding grounds for mosquitoes or other bugs. There is no way I am stopping any bugs from spawning, but it is exactly the outcome I need 🙂 Last year we purchased a battery to run the refrigerator in the shed shack, so I could use that to run the pump. I would have to work in batches since there is limited storage in the battery, but I could supplement it a little by charging the battery with a solar panel while it was in use. It took a little more time than I would have liked to get things in place, but it turned out to be a nice little setup in the end.

I thought I needed to help move this water because last year the pools of water were still there in August/September. What a difference a year makes! It has been an incredibly dry spring so far, and the pools of water were gone by early June. The pump and experience will still be useful in future years, so it was definitely a worthwhile investment 🙂

With the water gone, I could now start on the log piles. I learned last year that it is kind of a bummer to chop a log, get ready to stack it to dry, but not have some wood to prop it up off the ground. To avoid this, I decided to spend a weekend preparing the smaller logs that would be used to keep the cabin logs off the ground. I got more pieces cut than I expected, so I think it is time to start sorting through another log pile!

I’ll be going up this week to work on that, and hopefully I’ll be motivated enough when I get home to write y’all another blog post. Until then enjoy some of the wildflowers that have bloomed so far this year 🙂