Candlemas Day

An old saying goes that a farmer should on Candlemas Day have half his corn and half his hay. It was also said that the wife should have half her candles at this midpoint of the winter season.

Our friends, who heat by wood, recently surveyed their woodpile and realized that they most certainly did not have half their wood still stacked for the coming weeks. So, on Candlemas Day they came to us to cut, split, and haul away some wood that we had leftover from clearing our land. We ended up with a lot of wood--enough to see them through the rest of the winter and the long, chilly spring.



The kids hauled our wood about, rearranging our various stacks. H and her friend designed and built (with help) this wood hauling sled. It is made from scrap wood and an old pair of cross country skis. It worked really well!






It was a good day and we all remarked what a coincidence it was that we were doing something so seasonally appropriate on Candlemas Day! I had planned to make snow candles with the kids, but this real work that was very much needed turned out to be a better way to observe this midwinter time. Now, if I only had half my canned tomatoes and half my frozen blueberries left....