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Not sure why it's rotated, but you get the picture.
What do you see?
It's just past sundown, the area right there as of a few hours before was the last of (another) huge wood pile of rounds waiting to be split.
You see one chicken right? The irony is there should be over a dozen there. Why should they be there? Cause some of the wood had sat since late summer and the pile had all sort of tasty- to chickens- bugs in it and around it.
This little chicken, we call her Randy cause the wife's aunt was up one time and just adored the chicken so we named it after her- was the ONLY chicken still out and working after sundown.
And she had been there most of the day, I know I was there too, that's why the wood is gone.
I sit at the splitter with the splitter pushed up to the pile with just enough room for me to sit on a long next to or behind the splitter. I pull two or three wheelbarrows up close, within toss range for the split wood. I've been spending a couple hours here and there working at it for the better part of a month now. We built a new shed specifically for this wood, it's not our only wood shed or wood storage area. But we were not going to let it go to waste or rot in the woods. Most is the result of summer trimming of the property line areas in prep for more fencing. Some were in the way, some just helped remove cover and improve sight lines/fields of fire. The family would help me every day after school and they did the bulk of the stacking.
We all want a quick solution, we all want an easy and quick fix to things. This sort of thing is the perfect example of what is not a quick fix. It's a perfect example of the "how do you eat and elephant?" question.
I've posted for years telling people that living this way and that survival in general IS WORK and they better used to the idea of hard physical work on a daily basis. Some still dream that they will just be sitting around playing Yahtzee to "pass the time" in the PAW. Those types will NOT be ready.
I don't care what you currently do- teacher, computer guru, plumber, lawyer, doctor, sales person- you had damn well better get yourself used to -AND LIKING- the concept of physical work. Their will be plenty of it in the PAW.
A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away..... I was might of could have been involved (Opsec and all) in a retreat survival group. I'll never forget how many times I heard the phrase "It's so relaxing up here in the woods." Or "I just like to relax on the weekends." Well I submit unto you, you got the damn wrong idea! Survival and even preparing for survival is not about "relaxing", it's about WORK. Get used to that concept now, embrace it, own it, learn to love it.
Having a chance to interact with literally tens of thousands of survivalists in various forms over nearly 30 years, I can tell you that the VERY VERY SMALL percentage of those that make it out of the cities, that accumulate a good amount of supplies, that achieve a high level of ability in most skill sets are NOT LAZY PEOPLE. They are people that know how to work hard, are comfortable working hard and DO IT. Talk means NOTHING. These are NOT the types that drag a simple 2 hour project out to the whole day. These are NOT the types that let others done with their slacking while everyone else in the crew is putting in work. These are NOT the types that are off playing on their Iphone/pad/brain while everyone else is working.
This little chicken, Randy, she's a survivor. She was willing to put in the extra work, she hung around longer and put in more leg work than all the others combined. She didn't say "well it's 5 o'clock so I'm heading to the roost.." She put in the work. She didn't grab two or three bugs and say "well I did better than most of the other chickens." She continued to put in the work. She was out there after our work was finished and the pile cleaned up, she was still scratching. Randy didn't say "well it's the weekend and it's so peaceful here in the country, I'm just gonna relax."
Randy is a survivor, she is willing to put in the work. Are you?
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