Chloe has appointed herself Watcher of Milton since she joined the family in September.  (We have ongoing negotiations about how much space I need for various tasks:  trying to convince her that she can’t be between my foot and my hand when I’m putting on socks; explaining the mechanics of a human male using the toilet.)  This afternoon, she was making sure that I was keeping up with the firewood needs of the property.  While my tree supply is essentially limitless, the outdoor wood boiler (more on this beast soon) is very hungry, and I only started putting up the winter’s supply in October.  I’ve come to learn that the wood from ash trees is more or less dry enough to burn well as soon as it’s cut, so I was happy to split a couple of days worth of ash logs after lunch.  I’ve also learned that ash trees in this part of the world are doomed as a result of exotic beetles and diseases, so my forester friend tells me to cut them all down while they’re still solid enough to burn.