On the second Monday of the winter school holidays, farmers Bren and Liam built the girls an obstacle course in the forest. They cut logs and criss-crossed them in forks of trees up off the ground.
Our girls spent ages climbing and balancing and falling down too. Such great fun!
And then my farmer boy taught them how to split wood.
Our new lightweight splitter helped.
That's a pretty important life skill I think.
Wood is really important to us here on our farm. We use the wood we cut from our forest to heat our house, to cook our food and to build with.
The wood they split today will be stacked in a pile and left to dry out for burning next year. This year's wood is called green wood and by next year it will be called seasoned wood.
I love that our girls are learning these lessons. I love that they want to know and to get involved. I love seeing them with dirty hands and the biggest smiles on their faces.
I don't think I split any wood myself until I was 25.
I think they'll sleep well tonight.
So how are you?
Have you ever split wood?
It's great for a bit of stress relief, believe me.
Hopefully it'll be a useful tool when the teenage angsty years come.
