Springtime

Memorial Day
I spent the day with my daughter on Memorial day. Our day consisted of a visit to a friend's farm wherein the time went to play and a day in the woods cutting lumber for my furniture-making. We felled a Red Oak, a Hickory and a Cherry tree.

The Oak was pretty good sized, about 25" in diameter. Unfortunately, the wind was gusting when it was ready to go, so when when felled, it locked crowns with a smaller hickory tree. This required cutting the still-standing hickory, waiting for the snap of the bole, and running like mad to avoid the oak that was about to drop! Not a safe operation, but for the sake of the cows that Karl keeps in that section of woods, it was necessary to remove the leaner.

Safely on the ground, the hickory could be limbed and pulled off with a tractor - it's amazing to see what 70 HP will do with a monster tree! After the hickory was out, I was able to finish limbing the oak, but the tractor wasn't strong enough to move all 50+ feet of the bole without segmenting it. We did a 35-footer and a 16-footer and then were able to get them out with the tractor.

On to the Cherry - a beautiful 60+ foot tree with a wonderfully straight trunk. We had no issues with the notch, or the follow-through cut, but the wind picked up at just the wrong moment and leaned it away from the notch-cut side. We ended up having to use sledge and wedges to get it going back in the right direction. This beautiful tree, while sad to cut, will become a gorgeous new entry doorway and a spendid new front door for my house - not many homes come with solid hardwood entries, cut by hand and fashioned after the whims of the woodworker - an older art for this day of instant messages and instant gratification, but very satisfying to create such wonders.

The Treehouse
It's been a fabulous springtime here. The weather has been cool, dry, and pleasant. I don't know that I can ever recall enjoying a spring this much.

The kids and I have been continuing to build on to the treehouse. We are now three floors up (just over 30 ft from the ground) with the top floor. We need to add some railings there still! It's a beautiful white oak tree, probably 100 or so yrs old. Those trees grow slowly, but attain monster size.

When up in the canopy, it's very pleasant to see the birds (have seen Baltimore Orioles up close lately), and as of last night, the Locust trees are in full bloom, casting their scent throughout the air. We had a nice reading session up there last night. I've been reading The Two Towers to the kids, having made it through the Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring earlier this year.

Downtime

Having an ill family for a week makes for time to think! I have been napping daily and getting enough rest at night for several nights in a row now, trying to recover from the worst virus our family has experienced.

Sunday I awoke before 6 and began to think back on life. I've never been inspired to write a blog before as I never could imagine what I would say. I've had quite a life however, very full, very rich and full of adventure and stories. I've always wanted to write about my adventures "on the road" back in the mid eighties. These days, I live the life of an ordinary software guy, hard-working, but hardly imaginable as the long-haired dude I was twenty-three years ago. Why not write about it now? Why not finally publish my thoughts and, as they say, memoirs?

Delusional, I guess. The fever's gone too high for the last week and made me delusional. I could never find the time for that, now could I? I've been working for so many hours a day that I couldn't possibly take the time out to write. Perhaps not, and perhaps so. I will never know if I don't try, so ... here goes!