(((((((T-I-M-B-E-R)))))))).......

Tom came barreling through the door....... "MOM!!  MOM!!! are you busy?" he asks when he rounds the corner and spots me in the kitchen....

"What do you need Tom?".......... " I have a project for you and me if you want.".......... "okay.... what are WE doing?"......... "I want to mow that path over there further into the woods so I can get to some ash to cut up for fire wood and I need you to cut out a few small trees with your pruning sheers as I mow."

SOUNDS like a harmless project to keep him busy and out of trouble for awhile.......  I picture him clearing big stuff off the path and I clip the new little trees that are starting to grow and than it will be clear for him to run the rider through.....

That's how it DIDN'T go...... it was more like me two steps ahead of him, throwing debre off the path and trying to cut the bigger seedlings with my shears before he ran me and everything else in the path over.......lol

When the trail was cleared he headed back for his chain saw....

He instructed me to put the girls in till the trees were down.  Now I'm wondering what the heck is he cutting down..... fire wood for a little shack stove that he spends NO time in does not require taking down big ash trees........ I THOUGHT he was going after some downed dry trees.

I put the girls in the house and headed back out to see what he was up too.  I remember when he downed a whole grove of cedar to feed the deer one winter and he still hasn't cut all that up...... That was before I knew his brain was broke.

When I got to where he was.. he was looking up at some pretty big trees..... I knew at least one had to come down before I could talk him into NOT taking any more down.....

He was a Heavy Equipment Operator and Logger by trade...... Every once in a blue moon a "big tree" NEEDS to come down.  He spends a lot of time finding the biggest tree and a good reason why it must go down.

After the tree went down without a hitch he was pointing out ALL the others that were going too.  I convinced him to cut up and split this one first, to buy time to protect the rest from going down......

I knew once he started splitting this up he would decide it was too much physical labor for him..... 

Cutting, Splitting, Hauling & Stacking Wood use to be one of our favorite things to do together.  On the way out of the woods I talked about how beautiful the ASH Trees were and what a shame to cut them down just to burn up.....

That gave him the "out" he needed so he said "OK MOM.... I won't cut any more down"