In Aesop’s fable of “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” the ant works hard all summer preparing for winter, while the grasshopper chirps and plays and sings.

 

 

When winter comes, the ant is prepared but the grasshopper suffers.

The ant tells him he shouldn’t have idled his time away. He doesn’t offer to help; only admonishes him. It’s a hard lesson and a rather cruel, heartless response from the ant, but that’s reality.

 

“Idleness brings want”, “To work today is to eat tomorrow”, “Beware of winter before it comes.”

These are some of the lines used as the moral for this fable.

Take your pick of these old sayings. The end result is the same. They warn us to prepare for hard times and not be caught out.

In the heat of summer, we have been working like ants, preparing for winter. We have a big load of firewood to deal with. Usually we prefer fir, but the maple was a bonus.

Some of the logs are quite big and the rounds are still too big to handle.

See the yellow-handled splitting mall and the wedge  lying on the ground beside it at the end of one of the maple logs? When the rounds are split in half they are more manageable for placing onto the track of the hydraulic wood splitter.

One piece is ready to be split.

When the motor is started you just engage the lever and the steel plate is pushed against the wood, until it is squeezed against the wedge at the end of the splitter. The wood splits in two, and is then more of a size that’s right for the woodstove or fireplace.

But of course it still has to be stacked. That’s where Mrs. Ant comes in.  I should change my name from Anneli to Anteli. What’s one letter? (A lot of work!)