Chapter 55

Two more days had our clear cutting finished except for the few larger trees big enough to cut for lumber. We finished up completely with the firewood and did a general cleanup of the area before tackling the larger trees for logs.

George even showed off his newfound skill of skidder driving by pushing up or digging up stumps. He could usually pull them up with the winch line, push them up with the blade, or dig them completely out. I knew there'd be plenty of the larger ones he and the skidder couldn't handle after we moved to the log sized trees though. I figured we'd have to burn them out, but there should be plenty of trimmings off the logs to get the job done. It would be time consuming, but we needed to get the stumps out if we intended to raise crops on the land.

When logging day finally arrived we had to do some explaining to keep so many people from coming out and trying to help. For the first few minutes I was in mortal terror of dropping a tree onto an unsuspecting helper. After the first fell they didn't need any more explaining - they could see the danger.

Things were pretty easy at first since we were felling large trees where the smaller ones had already been removed. It didn't really matter which way they fell since there was nothing in the way of George maneuvering to get them where he wanted them. It got more complicated as we went along though.

Soon enough we were trying to drop potential sawlogs without harming other smaller trees we wanted to leave standing. It wasn't a tragedy if we damaged one we wanted to leave be, but it was annoying. Thankfully I got better at guessing which way my targets were going to fall, but there was never a way to know for sure.

One drawback occurred to me after about the fifth tree, but it had nothing to do with felling. We needed to cut down our logs now while the weather was good, but they would end up stored for quite a while before we got started cutting, or at least some of them would, and they would dry considerably. Of course it would make some of them much harder to cut, alien sawmill or no alien sawmill.

There was no real way out of the fix I could think of. We didn't have enough room or enough equipment to build a millpond, even if I wanted one, and I didn't. We might be able to spray water over the logs after we had them limbed and stacked, but I didn't like the thought of that solution either. For one thing they would start stinking before very long and they would keep a muddy mess going as long as we were watering them.

Finally I decided to just do what I could do and see if we needed to do something about it next year. Maybe I was worrying over not much. I didn't have any idea how the saw blades would hold out between sharpening and it was at least possible things would work well enough. It did change my attitude on the cutting though. Hickories would be cut last and put through the mill as soon as possible. After a hickory was good and dry it was fit for firewood only, period.

Even with all the seeming drawbacks things went well enough. By the time we shut down our logging operation a week later we had two hundred useable twelve-foot billets stacked inside the garage. We didn't have a good way to move them around, but we could get it done.

George had also learned a new trick with the skidder. We hadn't put the grapple to much use since we weren't trying to move the timber with any appreciable speed. We'd used the winch line and chokers to pull downed trees out for further cutting.

It didn't mean the skidder didn't have a huge grapple though and George discovered he could open it, put it down straddling the large stumps and then use the hydraulics to close on and clamp them. He could then lift against them and would end up with the front of the skidder off the ground. By rocking up and back the stumps would work at least part way out.

On the smaller ones it often pulled the stump completely free, and on others it sometimes loosened them enough so using the skidder's front blade could push them out. Still there were some he couldn't do anything with and they'd have to be burned out unless we could wish up a big dozer.

We got through with the outside work about four days before the first snow dropped in on us. Rose had spent the last clear day, though we had no way of knowing it, by introducing all the women to the delights of yard brooms. They had raked up leaves, twigs, and even sawdust all over the new cleared area and everything looked a lot nicer than I'd have thought.

At the supper table that night Rose had plenty of questions about how soon we'd start cutting lumber.

"We'll probably get started tomorrow or the next day."

"Good, I'm getting ready for some cabinet doors and some drawers in the bathroom. How long will it take you to make them after you have the boards?" she asked.

"Not more than a couple of months?" I told her, and could tell at once it wasn't what she wanted to hear.

"Why will it take you so long?"

"Most of it won't be waiting on me. Waiting for the wood to dry after it's cut will take the most time."

"It doesn't look wet to me."

"The wood has moisture in it though and it takes time for it to dry out. If we plane it while the moisture content is too high the wood will just shrink later, and anything I make out of it will end up with cracks and gaps. I'm not a real cabinet maker in the first place, but I think I can do an acceptable job sooner or later," I said.

"Sigfried warned me it was more complicated than it seemed and I should have paid attention to him," she said.

"Don't worry. When I get the doors and drawers made and installed you'll like them, I promise."

"I know, but it just seems like we have so much we need to do," Rose said.

"We do have plenty to do, but we don't have a rush to get it done. You might as well try to think of things like this as hobby projects, because when you come down to it we don't have to go to work. All our time can go into fixing up around here, or most of it anyway."

"I know it, but it just seems wrong somehow. I feel like I need to be working on something."