Surprises Like Spring Rain: Chopping wood

Hello my dear readers,

Almost a month ago I spent a Saturday helping my best friend, Bob, chop wood. Bob's grandparents still use a wood burning furnace to heat the log cabin that they built from scratch. His Grandfather (also named Bob) used to chop all of the wood by himself, but as he got older and his kids grew older the family banded together to do the work. Now Grandpa Bob is able to supervise while the family chops and stacks the wood. :)

I had never chopped wood before, and I wisely chose to avoid the sharp pointy axes and chainsaws. Instead, I gathered the chopped logs and loaded them into the bed of the truck. Once one truck was full it drove across the grounds where another crew waited to unload it and another truck pulled in to be loaded.

We worked from 9ish (I think) in the morning until lunch, though I took a small break during the morning to go inside and have the most amazing cinnamon pull-a parts ever! Bob was laughing at me because I couldn't stop eating them- they were just too good! I didn't get the recipe from his grandma, but I saw a recipe in Kinfolk's new cookbook that looked similar. I am excited and a little nervous to try it out!

Anyways, back from my digressing ramble about food, after that small breakfast break we returned to the yard and worked until lunch (which was potluck style and consisted of an assortment of homemade dishes contributed by different members of the group). With our bellies full we headed back out for the last stretch and chopped wood until 3ish. By this point clouds had begun to gather, and the Weather Channel was predicting a nasty storm, so we packed all the tools away and the family started catching up. We all sat and munched on apples and drank assorted refreshments and when the rain finally did hit I think we all headed home feeling like we had earned a good nights sleep.

Overall the experience was fun and rewarding. It was really fun to jump in and help out, and it was more fun to see the men look surprised to see me working alongside them instead of watching the kids (or maybe they were just wondering who the heck I was- it was my first time meeting a lot of them). Plus there was that cinnamon bread- I don't think any event could be seen negatively if that bread was served at it. :)

Oh! Also I had people ask me if the tree that produced the apples used in my recently published spread "How to Eat an Apple" had survived (For those of you who are unaware, the tree produced so many apples that it split in two under its own weight!). I am pleased to report that not only did it survive, it produce delicious apples yet again! :)

Also, I am currently working on an Ecookbook with the lovely people at Wolftree! It is set to be released on the fifteenth of October and I am super thrilled to be partnering up with Molly Yeh and Anne Gillie to do a bulk of the editing and photography! We are still looking for submissions however, so if you have a holiday tradition involving food please send us the recipe and the story behind it at submission.wolftree.co!

Below are photos I took with my iPhone- I hope to have the images from Icarus ready to be posted soon!