A miracle in the woods with my dad...

Yesterday I experienced something that bordered on the miraculous.

I’ve cut, split, stacked, and burned wood for the better part of my life, so I have an idea of how much I have and how much I need just by looking at the piles I’ve accumulated.  Earlier this week I walked my property and took an inventory of my wood stacks doing a mental winter-to-wood ratio, as I call it.  No matter what way I cut it (see what I did there?), I didn’t have enough wood for the year.

 

It was harder for me to get out this last spring due to my mother’s passing and the emotional aftermath that left me either busy or listless.  So as I did some equations in my head, I began thinking about who I might call to buy some seasoned wood to get me through April.  That hasn’t ever happened to me, so I was a little salty.

 

Nevertheless, I woke up to a 38 degree morning and, after running some errands, made my way home and threw on some warm clothes. I fired up my dad’s 8N Tractor, hooked up the old manure-spreader-turned-wood-wagon, found some leather gloves, laced up my dad’s old boots, and headed out to gather wood and get it stacked in the garage.

 

I put the first two cart-loads of cherry on the back wall that still needs some time to dry.  By the time March comes around it should be good and ready.  Then I moved to another less-seasoned pile and loaded it up to put against the back wall for mid-winter burning.

 

I had three piles left out in the woods.  According to my calculations it would leave me about 5 wagon loads short of what I need for the cruel and unusual punishment Michigan winters inflict upon us. 

 

The first pile I headed to was a black walnut that was blown over out by the side of the dirt road that I carved up and split up earlier this year.  I took one load back to the garage, and then another.  By the third load, which I thought would be my last, I was surprised that the pile didn’t seem to be going down. [I’m not joking]  I came back for a forth load and it seemed like there was more wood than my last run.  Then a fifth and a sixth.  It was as if the pile was multiplying like the fish and loaves in the Bible.  I kid you not that I came back for a seventh load and by the time I threw the last piece onto that cart and hauled it back to the garage, I had all the wood I needed for the whole year!

 

And there are still two piles of oak and cherry to spare waiting to be gathered!  

 

I began the day knowing that I would probably have to buy some wood to get me through the winter and ended the day marveling at the miraculous “catch of fish” that gave me so much wood that I’m sitting on wood for next year!  More than enough!  I still can hardly believe it.

 

It was a day in the woods with my dad that I won’t ever forget.  I was talking to him the whole time shaking my head in disbelief at the mysterious and miraculous provision of God.  I felt the pleasure of God all around me!  What a day!