If asked what are the good thing about living in the countryside, the common answers would be; close to nature, peaceful and relaxed living, away from noise and air pollution, and access to outdoor activities like fishing, camping, hunting, and more, and the list goes on. These beautiful reasons for living in the countryside are what attract people in the urban to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and indulge themselves (once in a while) in the simple and healthy living the countryside offers.
However, aside from the abovementioned irresistible charms of the countryside, for us country folks one of the most valuable and practical reasons that make living in the countryside the best is the cost of living and availability (24/7) of livelihood provided by nature. The countryside offers numerous means of earning income just as fishing and selling it to the neighborhood or in the market, planting and harvesting fruits and vegetables, weaving baskets made of bamboo or rattan and so many things to mention.
So in today's blog, I'm sharing with you our "province-life", one of the simplest means of livelihood in the countryside which my brother and I enjoyed doing last weekend, and that is gathering and tying firewood to be sold in the neighborhood.
Gathering woods.
It's the time of the year again that my brother harvested some matured and grown branches of the trees suited for firewood. It's not every time that we can do this or every month because we have to wait for new branches of trees to grow. Cutting off branches is a lot easier than cutting whole trees because aside from that cutting the whole trees is illegal, it's cumbersome to carry it from the mountain going to the lowlands. Moreover, pruning will let the trees live and grow more branches, in this way, we could still protect mother earth and at the same time benefit from it.
Chopping the woods.
After the woods were transported to the lowlands, it was time to split and chop them into a uniform size. It should be uniform in length because these are sold in the neighborhood.
In the countryside, we used the traditional way of cooking which is using Kalan (our version of stove) and firewood. As for my family, we used both the Kalan (traditional) and Gas Stoves (during the rainy season). So now that the rainy season is approaching, people are storing firewood in their barns, which means selling firewood is in high demand at this time.
Drying and grouping the woods.
After chopping the wood into pieces it's time to dry them out under the blazing heat of the sun. The woods are also grouped according to the type of their cut. We separate the round woods from half-cut woods. And once the woods are dry it's time to proceed to the last step which is the tying of the firewood together.
Tie them down.
The whole process of making firewood requires strength, starting from cutting the branches, and transporting them to breaking them into pieces requires muscle force and ample time to do. My brother was working on this for a couple of weekends now. He couldn't continue the job on weekdays as he is having his review for his licensure exam.
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Thus, just last weekend when I had no outdoor plans and travel, I volunteered to help him on tying the firewood. I've tried tying this way back when I was a teenager every time our father gathered firewood to sell. Tying doesn't need much force but instead, it requires skill in calculating hence you need to bundle the firewood with the same quantity without counting them one by one.
I was happy doing the work and felt fulfilled that I was able to do this task again and help my brother with his small means of earning money. The earnings he will get from this firewood will be spent as his daily allowance going to the review center. I was able to help him at the same had our sibling bonding over the woods. 馃槉
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My weekend had been productive and fulfilling. 馃槏
That's it for my woods on weekend experience. Thank you so much for reading. I wish you all safe and well always.
Don't forget to smile often!馃槏馃