a little help was forthcoming

We ended up with a generous half-cord of wood. I had moved nearly all of it to the back yard when Mr. Robert made his appearance. I wouldn't say that his health was perfect. But we devised a plan whereby he'd hand-carry the wood down the remaining few feet to the wood pile and I'd stack it. The problem was that the remaining few feet were snow over ice on a slight slope and I'm terrified of falling or even sliding suddenly.

He did a great job -- didn't slip or slide the whole time. And I did fine with stacking a few bits at a time. I think we've just replenished nearly all the wood we've used since last fall. (This is why I think we got slightly more than a half cord -- I'm fairly certain we've burned more than a half cord since September.) We'll continue burning the older wood while the new stuff dries out. It looks great and I'm sure it will keep us warm into much of next winter.

However, if we keep burning at this rate, I'll likely order more wood next fall. When we can, it's nice to keep the fire going even after we've turned off the main heat in the house. Then we like to "take the fall chill off" and start up the stove before the heat goes back on.