The Barn on White Run

Although I have been spending any shop time over the past few months cleaning, tidying, and reorganizing the barn, I had long ago penciled-in this week as Firewood Week 2026/7.  We are deep into Winter 2025/6 with an extended forecast of unseasonably cold weather, with overnight lows for the next fortnight running at or below zero.  That was motivation to get a good jump on next winter and beyond (we’re fine for this winter).

My target was the cluster of windfall trees (mostly maple and birch IIRC) that came down in a storm some time ago, up the hill behind the cabin.  The main trunks on these are all 18-24″, a few a bit more.  The beauty of such a trove is that it is already down but standing above the ground, making it easy to get to while seasoning “on the hoof.”  I’ll have to clear a couple of scrub saplings to get my 4WD S10 up there but if the ground is clear it will be a piece o’ cake.

Then came the disheartening forecast last week for a Storm of the Century!!! with somewhere between 12 and 24 inches of snow.  Such an event would disrupt my firewood harvesting and processing plans.  Not an existential problem, but I did have my mind set on it.  Then came the Snowpocaplyse.  Big whup.  Not even enough to get out the snowblower.

The forecast is still for very cold (for us) weather so I’ll see if I can work in well-below-zero wind chills.  My old Minnesota home town has wind chills of minus-60 so this isn’t all that bad in the cosmic scheme of things.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE

The monster snowfall never materialized, but the gradual deposits from the storm front wound up to be about three inches of snow, followed by three inches of sleet, all encased in a saturating half inch of freezing rain.  Even my 13hp snowblower choked on that combo.  We spent yesterday hacking out two of the vehicles and will spend today and tomorrow working on our long driveway.  It’s like clearing demolition rubble as I first have to break everything up then shovel it out of the way.

Probably like many of you, as I watch the paroxysm of manufactured “rage” throughout urban America I am almost continually running an OODA Loop especially when I leave Shangri-la and go out into the larger world.  (OODA is the military acronym for Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act, a decision-making model for use in uncertain situations.)  In the environment that is the USA 2026, OODA is in my mental background like a virus scan.  Since many/most/all(?) of the “spontaneous” riots are conducted by trained out-of-state professionals provided by entities like Crowds on Demand, Inc. (a real LA-based rent-a-mob temp agency!), the need for OODA is an imperative.  I for one am curious about the money trail for the rent-a-mobs.

But ruminations on OODA are just the gateway for this post.  Almost all of us of a certain age have had our awareness formed, at least in part, by two classic dystopian novels we read in high school — 1984 (1949, George Orwell) and Brave New World (1932, Aldous Huxley).  However, my favorite novel of this (or any other) genre and roughly contemporary to them, and one that I am unreservedly recommending to you, is the far less known 1945 C.S. Lewis That Hideous Strength.  When reading THS I find many of the parallels to 2026 to be inescapable.  It is almost a fictional recitation of the seduction Hannah Arendt described as “the banality of evil” but set in the campus and village of a small British university.  It brings to mind the old quip, “The smaller the boat the meaner the rats.”

The understanding from this trilogy of dystopian fiction is IMHO foundational to being a modern grown-up.  Not the full foundation, but still foundational.  Read or reread them for a refresher course in the human condition and of the evil that men can do.  And if you are unfamiliar with That Hideous Strength, pick it up and be edified.  Every time I reread it I find myself saying, “Holy cow, that’s just like now!”  Yes, it is a semi-fantasy, but the parallels are too powerful to ignore.  It is not a fast read, not because it is turgid or difficult, but because you might just find yourself pausing by necessity to consider the implications of the tale for our modern, debauched world.

For extra credit when exploring the dysfunctional human condition take a stroll through The Minor Prophets of The Old Testament, Hosea through Malachi.  Since the books do indeed chronicle accurately the nature of the human condition, like me you are likely to pause and reflect that the truths therein are as current as tomorrow’s headlines.

Since finishing the fourth floor of the barn fifteen years ago I’ve used that space for a lot of things; a meeting /presentation space for Groopshop,  a video studio, a classroom, a Gragg chair workshop.  With the demise of my teaching schedule here the function of the space has (d)evolved into primarily storage especially for extra workbenches and such.  Over the years I’ve probably moved benches from the main floor to the fourth floor (and back) a dozen times or more, using my compound block-and-tackle hand hoist.

But here’s the part where the story gets very mysterious.

Somehow the benches gained weight over the years, and I was at the point where hoisting them by hand was problematic.  What was once no big deal is now a very big deal.  And, since in recent months I’ve been reorganizing and reducing the contents of the main floor, I was faced with the task of hoisting several benches up and out of the way.

Hmmm.

The solution?  Buying and installing a Harbor Freight power winch.   Their smallest 120v plug-in model was more than adequate.  I bolted the winch unit to a 2×8 then lag-screwed the 2×8 into a number of the 2×6 rafters.  The new system works perfectly and moving heavy things up and down to the barn attic is now a piece o’ cake.

After more than a month being out of commission, between family gatherings and what my dear old Dad would call “the epizootic,” as of yesterday I am back in full swing.  Not quite full strength and speed, but that will come with ongoing activity.

I am now fully caught up with all my orders of polissoirs, waxes, and videos.  Interestingly, for the first time in many years I got zero orders for Christmas gifts (the buyers always tell me).  I’m looking forward to getting my PayPal annual statement, I am expecting that this past year I only sold half as many as the year before.  Perhaps the market is saturated.  Given that at this point it is just barely even a hobby I am fine with that.  In looking backward, I noticed that the shipping/postage costs for my first order more than a decade ago was $2.97, padded mailer included.  My latest per unit shipping cost is now approaching $8 for padded envelope and postage.  Good thing it is not a growing enterprise on which I am pinning my retirement hopes!

At the moment my greatest concern is my supply.  My broom maker has also been under the weather and unable to make any new inventory since the beginning of November.  If this continues, I’ll soon be out of stock.  Fortunately, I spoke to him this week and he is confident he can be back in his own shop in a week or so.

Wish him well. Perhaps now he will take me and his wife seriously when we implore him to train a successor.

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