14 August 2010
Alex and Katy (younger son and wife) arrived for their first-ever visit to the property at 7 o’clock, having arisen at 2:30 and left Boston at 3:45. Toby also returned promptly at 7 o’clock with a very manly Husqvarna 372 chainsaw (took me two hands just to pick the thing up; I wouldn’t last an hour if I tried to use it in the woods. Toby, needless to say, handed the saw like it weighed two pounds.) He quickly set to work dropping trees that could be sent to the sawmill. In his hands, that saw could CUT!!!! A 20″ red oak: about a minute and on the ground and exactly where he planned to put it. Ditto every other tree he dropped. He taught me a ton about tree felling technique. His tractor has an hydraulic PTO-driven ½″ steel cable winch that made child’s play of removing multi-ton logs from the woods. I had a great time playing choker-man while Toby was in winch-operator mode. By noon, every marketable tree (we thought) was in a skid pile out by the road, so Toby departed to enjoy the rest of his weekend. Meanwhile, Tasi had been to Taylor to fetch the brush chipper. After a quick safety briefing (with many references to the movie Fargo), Chree, Tasi, Kristen, Alex, and Katy set to work turning the tops of the trees that Toby was felling and the many large brush piles along the driveway into fair-sized piles of mulch. The first branch that Chree fed into the maw promptly whipped across her face, cutting her cheek and fattening her lip …and I wonder sometimes why she doesn’t just LOVE working in the woods!?!? Alverta arrived at noon, bringing a pan of her special Butter Fudge Fingers, one of my favorite desserts. With her supervision and gasoline-fetching assistance, by swimming time all the brush and newly fallen tree tops east of the shed were history. Lynne, Perry, and Jake (their son), arrived for a visit as we were demolishing a few pounds of under-cooked steaks on the barbee, some divine Kingsley’s corn, and various adult libations.