The wood pile, cats, and carrying wood

Dad had access to rough cut and planed lumber and to split wood for our wood-burning stove.

I loved the planed boards. It was mostly 2x4 mill ends. Dad had a large pile in a storage shed south and east of the house. I decided to build a tunnel into the pile and, board by board, opened up a large cavity inside the pile. Dad was not aware of the cavity. He was, however, pleased with the size of the pile he had accumulated. During the winter, we removed boards from the pile, cut them up, and burned them. There came a point when the huge cavity inside the board pile was exposed and Dad realized that we might not have enough wood to make it through the winter. I got a good talking-to and he began to once again haul wood home.

We raised cats. Well, it seemed like we did. There were always many around. One particular spring a large litter was born. We had great fun with them and part of the fun was using the planed boards to make a play area. We built little houses, elevated walkways, and everything we could think of. It was great fun.

When we did not have the mill ends, we had split wood. My Uncle Art could carry a huge armload from the wood pile to the wood box. Occasionally, I was asked to carry some and it was always a great imposition on me but I would do it. On one occasion, a piece had several wood worms of some kind on it. They were ugly, wiggly things and I dropped that particular piece on the way. Later, Dad made me pick it up and carry it to the wood box. Not sure what I learned that day.