The Winter Program is underway; Ed Bullock, our new logger and wood supplier, has taken over for Greg Burch, who retired after 50 years of logging. Ed and his pug J.D. were regular visitors here in warm weather.
Ed is just as friendly, honest, and conscientious as Greg, and we are lucky to have found him and signed him up for our seven cords.
The price of everything is shooting up, but the firewood for the wood stoves saves us a ton of money in the winter, and heating oil is also through the roof. Ed brought two cords to the woodshed today; they cost $400 together.
I know getting started early is good; everyone goes crazy looking for wood in June. I hope to be half done by then.
Ed and Maria, and I got to talk and get to know each other today. We are impressed. I wonder why every logger I’ve ever met is so nice, hard-working, and responsible. I’m sure some are not, but I’ve never met one that wasn’t.
You have to have an amazing work ethic to be a logger.
(Ed Bulloch)
As Quartermaster of Bedlam Farm, I am very proud of the ecosystem we’ve built around the farm – honest, friendly, and reliable people for hay, mowing and plowing, handy work and carpentry, electricity, and plumbing.
I enjoy doing business with all of them. We feel incredibly safe and well cared for.
Life up here is beautiful and challenging in equal amounts; people like Ed Bullock are a pleasure to work with, and paying their bills doesn’t sting. They work very hard for their money.
Maria, our Willa Cather girl, loves stacking wood and generally declines my many offers to get her help.
Ed has been logging with Greg for 20 years, and now that Greg has retired, he’s taken over the business. I asked him if he loved this work. “You have to love it,” he says, “and I do.” It’s rough on the back, though, he acknowledged.
I just met Ed recently, and I admire him already. He is a solid and honest person who makes the country work without complaint or trouble.
If Maria wears out a bit, she says she’ll hire some Amish girls up the hill; they are hard workers and work well with us. But she rarely does ask for help. I can help throw the wood to her from the pile, but I can’t do much more. I will do everything I can.
It’s almost a spiritual experience for her; she loves to go outside in the evening for an hour or two and toss wood. She loves the exercise, and it is almost a meditation for her. I did marry well.
We’re getting ready for winter. And summer. It’s supposed to be nearly 100 degrees tomorrow; I’ll be inside for much of the day. I might try and run to the gym early. I hope she doesn’t try stacking. I guess she will.