Mountain Lane Homesteaders

My muscles are aching in remembrance of our logging days from last summer. Not because they have such a long memory, but because we went out and cut some of our winter firewood on Sunday afternoon/evening and they have been reminded that it's been a while since they've carried that much! Fun to know the wood we just now got, is going to be heating the wood we got way back last summer that is now in place as rafters in our little cabin.....

Pole gathering Day 3:

While it was just Sam, Stan, and myself (and kids of course) working in the woods, the task we were doing required hard physical labor but there was an ease and comfortability that made the day as much about enjoying our time together as it was about harvesting the trees. We took time to make fires and have relaxing lunches. Our daughters spent time with sketch pads drawing and then showing us their work. It was on one of these days that my then 10 year old son taught me how to look through the scope of his 22 rifle and knock down a pinecone.

I will, unfortunately, have no pictures to share of day 3 as being there with a large group of men and working at hyperspeed did not exactly lend itself to inspirational photographic moments! Hello help from the masses, goodbye to slow and steady!

As promised Pastor Jim had a crew of experienced wood guys up on the mountain before we even arrived. They were combining helping us get poles with gathering firewood for our church. We have a wood ministry where they gather many many cords of firewood during the summer and fall to give away to people during the winter who aren't able to get it for themselves.

When we arrived there were already several trees down on the ground and pulled up onto the road. Sam and Stan jumped right in to help with the sawing and the hauling out process while I went around from tree to tree measuring and telling the guys where to make the cuts so the poles were the right size. Once all the downed trees were cut to length I switched over and helped toss logs up onto the church wood truck while someone else loaded it to the brim.

Trees continued to come down like crazy. By noon twice as many poles were ready than we were able to get by ourselves in 2 days of work. Not only that, but they were of a more uniform size without as much taper at the tip as what we had been getting. By the end of the day we had our limit. 100 poles ready and waiting for the next stage! 

Having experienced those first two days getting poles out on our own, we know that we could have continued to do it just the same way and we would have eventually reached our goal.  But the time we were saved because of the help we received was a great gift.

The memories made that week are priceless.  The poles were the goal but in process we learned new skills, exercized our bodies, engaged in extensive laughter, enjoyed nature, involved our children, and saw much friendship extended.  

Life is good.