Bucket Brigade and more wood chopping in time for Christmas.
There are often moments in life that you simply don’t have time to fully capture. Rob is so good at encouraging the kids outside and when he knew he had to sort out some stored wood it was a case of many hands make light work.
It is amazing how quickly our kids jump to doing outdoor wood chores with daddy over tidying up chores with mummy. I think I also know which ones I would pick as well!
The other weekend, in preparation for Christmas, Rob had the kids set up shuttling wood from around the back of our shed to the store next to the house and what light work they made of a big job. It is amazing how much of our life now revoles around the fire and it is so wonderful to be able to show the kids that we need wood to keep warm and that they can help with that. All in their red santa hats I was watching them, trying to write some kind of christmas story in my head around the situation that was before me. A father energentically lifting children over hills of mud and more wood as they grabbed at the logs and threw them to a patch ready to be chopped. It was all very Enid Blyton, as they each passed wood to each other to move it further away. We recently taught the kids what a traditional ‘Bucket Brigade’ was when trying to pack away food into the cupboards as all four of us were in the way. It is a great way to get kids involved and used us all to complete a task. It is in fact a very efficient way of working as a team and the kids love doing it in all kinds of situations now. And wood gathering seems to be the perfect place to put it into practise!
It is really amazing how much wood we have used recently. I wouldn’t say it is more than we expected but I suppose you never actally realise how much you need until you have a fire. Rob has a weekly slot for getting wood chopped and it seems that it is becoming a love and not a chore for him. The kids also are enjoying entertaining themselves by helping him and for me, getting them all out the house for a bit gives me time to sit in front of the fire by myself and enjoy it!
