Felling the Larch

... checking to see if all of the equipment is here ...

David Wood and Glen took out the larch tree in front of my house, a cedar across the road and two firs.

 Now we have the internet for we have a site line.

The trees across the road seemed as though they were small ones.

That is because I could only see ½ of the tree above the road.

... getting the line taut ...

Moiya, Joaquim, David Camps, Bonnie and I watched the trees come down.

 "This is the closest I will ever be in my life to a falling tree," said Bonnie.

 I saw dried blood on Glen’s face half way through the cutting of the larch, only because Bonnie asked me, "Did you see the blood on Glen's face?"

That is when I noticed that a nick was gone out of his hard hat as well.

... creating an opening through which
we can receive an internet signal

“Yes,” he said.

 “That happened about first thing before anyone but Dave Wood was here."

"I was at the edge of the hill, propped on a log, took a step and didn’t realize I was at the end of the plateau. The slope of the ground is about straight down from there."

He took me over and we looked at the slope again.

... dragging one of the firs closer to the burn pile ...

"I was headed down on my belly, head first, belly acting like a sled and noticed that my body was accelerating on the downward ride."

"I wondered which part of my body would find a way to stop the acceleration."

"It was my hard hat on a stump."

"My initial reaction was, Hey. Surprise. I am O.K."

... attaching the chain -- close up  ...

It was Dave Wood who noticed the bloodied nose afterward.

There was a second surprise spill. The ladder slipped off of the larch tree as it was having the chain attached to it so that when Glen made the cut it would be weak enough to fall over because of the pressure on the tree.

The way the two work is Dave runs the truck putting some tension on the tree which then comes down.

... attaching the chain -- long shot ...

Dave, watching from the road, for at this point, that was his job, ran calling out to see if Glen was O.K.

 At the same time Glen was yelling, I am fine.

Just a small slip.

When the trees fell, Glen and Dave hooked them up to Dave’s truck and dragged them up a ways toward the pig roast pit so that they would be out of the way of the CPR who would be coming down that road on Monday.

... getting the line taught and the cut in the tree ...

Both men were cutting branches off of the tree boles with their chain saws.

 By this time, the rest of us had jobs.

We were dragging the branches to the burn pile – all of us, including David Camps, since he is awarded internet time for the hard work he does outside.

That means David Camps was working faster than the rest of us.

 .. the larch tree on its way down ...

Glen said,  “I call the branch gathering for darkness”.

That means the work is over for the day.

Everyone gathered up their stuff.

That is a new concept – going inside because it is too dark to see what I am doing outside.

The earth has tilted and there isn’t much hope of the sun coming over the hill and giving a lot of daylight hours.

... now that was an afternoon's work ...

Today the sun sets at 5:34 pm.

That is a bit early to quit work.

But it is darned hard to see what to do next without any daylight.

... time to get the branches off of the bole of the tree ...

We did have one great hour -- everyone working, trying to clean up the branches so that they wouldn't be in the way of the CPR the next day.

I slipped out the next day alone to do more raking.  It is quiet and beautiful when I am out there working.  I put my hand on my rake to watch a raven go overhead.  I wondered if I could make the cawing sound as the crow does, for it would go well in the summer when I am telling some Sepwemac stories around a camp fire.  I began to practise.  I am good but not good enough to fool a crow yet.

Arta