You will be shocked at the results of our latest investigative reporting.

Following up on a hot tip from an anonymous sponsor, our forensic team analyzed Leroy The Moose. 

Plastic!

The crowd, pitchforks in hand, have clawed Leroy from the barn.

But of all those throwing a tizz, perhaps our editorial board leads the pack. They want to be upset that Leroy is ersatz. At the same time, would it be better for us to be decorating our building with a dead animal?  Confusulating!

Enter this week’s 25 Acres Lottery!

The winner will receive a genuine plastic moosehead and free lodging.*

Transportation, fees and licenses excluded.

Moving on from fraud to fundamentals, we’re celebrating a big accomplishment here this week.

Shed-1 and What-Will-Become-Shed-2 are now fully stocked. That's enough wood to fill our workout room to the ceiling.

And we *hope* it’ll be all we’ll need this coming winter.

As our faithful readers will surely remember, that's half the wood we want to produce this year. We want to get a year ahead like they say one should oughta so the fresh wood has enough time to season.

Now, faithful readers, you may be wondering whether we aspire to build a Hadrian’s Wall of Wood, such as this monument posted on reddit this week for those who follow r/firewood.

The proud owner even bought a drone so he could take the pictures. Our kind of people.

But, rest assured. While the drone sounds nice, we simply want to have enough to heat the house.

We got out for a little hike this week. Up Tumbledown Mountain to a little lake at the top.

Beer that evening. Soreness the next day.

Back at 25 Acres, the Billy Goat won the week’s log dragging competition. Go Subaru!

We hosted the log dragging as part of setting up the Lower Woodyard. This is where the firewood action is now moving, since we’ll store the other half of the wood on the side of the garage.

On the left of the picture, you can see the ends of two logs the Billy Goat dragged in. They now make a little bucking stand for cutting up smaller pieces of wood.  

We’ve run out of easy-to-get-to already-dead trees. So, we’ve graduated to cutting live trees.

Of which we have, well, oodles and bunches.

We're starting small as we learn.

This little maple was targeted to fall in line with the marked tree.

Missed by 6”, need to practice!

Your humble correspondent is slowly graduating to bigger trees (though all still modest by logging standards).

The latest volunteer … a ~12” thick beech along with its companion. 

This little woodlot is down near the end of our driveway, hidden a few yards back.

Key finding: it’s important to stay close to where the Billy Goat can reach. This stuff is heavy!

There’s a steep hill right behind where the picture is taken. My plan is to work up that hill a bit so I can roll the wood down then carry it out.

Moving on from plants to animals, we are not very happy to introduce the latest animal companion we have here at the 25 Acre Woods. 

Nope, not a snake. This is just a shot of how the garden hose falls out. Thought it was kinda fun.

Instead, the Billy Goat has taken on a pet, Seymour.

Seymour the mouse. Ack!

We’ve started proceedings to evict Seymour. But Seymour is not only "forgetting" about the rent, he’s also not leaving. We’re stepping up our game.

And, for those with keen eyes, did you notice the gender? Yep, we're very much hoping that Seymour is a “he.”