With Companionship, Phil Works Extra Hard

Our friend Creigh came down to spend one of his spring break days with us. He and Phil sawed three logs (well, I guess they cut one in half, so Phil claimed four: it's that math where 2+.5+.5=4). Apparently, when Creigh first tried to lift a log, and then even just a 2" thick board, he gasped and said, "You must be the most fit person in the world!"

Sometime after lunch, the three of us went to chip some recently downed little trees. A few weeks ago, Phil had cleared saplings around the edge of the finger, and most of them were 2" or less in diameter.

We haven't ever chipped recently cut trees, nor a preponderance of small saplings. Whether that was the issue or something else, we clogged the exit chute five or six times, and lost a belt once. This meant that we didn't get as much done as we hoped, since about half the time was spent with the chute off, digging out handfuls of wet green chips.

My job was to gather the downed saplings and arrange them, all facing the same direction, for Creigh to easily feed. I love this task, as it's like the most awesome cleaning job ever: take a disaster site, clean it up, and generate useful chips. I will say, though, that this was much easier in the lower pasture, where the ground is flat. Even a 10' rise, when repeated enough times, gets tiring for the legs.

But all in all, it was a great day.