Cutting the Neighbors with Help from the Kids
Okay, so we were only cutting his logs, but couldn't resist the title. For this weekend adventure, we were joined by two of our grown children. We couldn't resist putting them to work the sawmill. (Just the nature of a parent, I suppose.)
The previous week our neighbor had hauled a number of large pine logs for us to cut up. Or, at least large to us, as the butt of the first one was sixteen inches. He also brought down three logs that were from a dead standing pine and we all wanted to see what type of 'bluing' it had going on inside.
We got up early on Saturday morning, eager to begin. Kevin did his usual pre-sawing stuff on the mill: filling the gas tank, greasing, filling the drip reservoir, etc. With Justin watching, Kevin loaded the first log. We were ready to begin.
The first cut was awesome. The big log Jim had brought down was going to make some absolutely beautiful boards. No knots, no anything. We cut the log in 3/4 12" boards.
For the second log, I showed Justin how to do my job. It didn't take long for him to get the hang of using the sawmill. "Like slicing cheese," was his analogy. I went to help Kevin bucking boards. Erin had joined us by then.
Kevin put her to work between him at the end of the sawmill and me at the rear of the neighbor's truck. Erin's first response was, "I'm to delicate." We all laughed at that one.
By the end of the day, we had cut our neighbor almost 400 board feet. His truck was full. The blue pine would have to wait. We did try cutting into the first blue log, but hit something about two feet in. Kevin back the blade out and attempted two more cuts, but had the same results, so we called it a day.
It was a good day, I think in the end, the kids had just as much fun as we had been having with Oscar all along.
