Ten-Finger Exercises

treeless

Yesterday was cold and wet, 32 degrees and raining, a terrible day for hard work outside, but Hap and Bill did it. They cut and cleared away the broken, knocked over trees; loaded the branches into the truck and hauled them to the fire department training area, the designated place for this town. City crews will get out a chipper and make lots of sawdust to use in the parks. The parks themselves suffered the loss of many, many trees.

They used their chainsaws to cut the trunks of three trees into 18" logs that will fit into Hap's wood stove next year, when they've dried out a little. The wood was very sappy. Hap split it with a maul, actually two mauls because he didn't have a wedge with him. He has a flattened head maul at home, but Bill's was still pretty round and caused lots of extra swings that bounced off the head. It's amazing to watch the power and energy it takes to split logs. I'm glad I didn't see all the mis-hits. Sounds like they'd be jarring.

It sounded like they worked well together, and that's a good experience for Hap. He does well with his in-laws too, father and brother, but not his own father. Anyway, we rented a nice truck for him to drive over, which he enjoyed, and he went home with some extra bucks in his pocket. He'll be starting a new job with the power company in a week, and he's excited about it. He's worked for his wife's family in their vending machine business forever, and he needs to get out on his own and get some benefits, like insurance and retirement, etc. It's time.

Today was clear and beautiful by noon, and Bill thought we'd fly somewhere. He had choir practice after church though, and was admitting to being pretty worn out from yesterday by the time it was over. The fog had come up, and it made a perfect excuse to come straight home.