• About

stevewiegenstein

~ News, announcements, events, and ruminations about my books, including Slant of Light, This Old World, The Language of Trees, and Scattered Lights, and about creativity, fiction, Missouri, the Ozarks, and anything else that strikes my fancy

stevewiegenstein

Tag Archives: firewood

Woodcutting Season

29 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by stevewiegenstein in Missouri, Ozarks, Personal, Rural

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Annapolis, firewood, Ozarks, rural

When I was a youngster, the afternoon of Thanksgiving was reserved for wood-cutting. My dad had a circular saw that hooked up to the PTO of the tractor, and for weeks beforehand my brother and I had been piling up slabs from the local sawmills. (For those of you who aren’t familiar with “slabs,” they are the edge pieces that are created when a sawmill shapes up a log for lumber — bark on a curved outer side, flat on the inner side, typically eight to twelve feet long.)

My brother would feed, my dad would run the saw, and I was the “off-bear” — the guy who would catch the cut section and toss it to the side. Occasionally my brother and I would trade jobs to keep from getting bored, but Dad always ran the saw. My mother’s task was to stand about twenty feet away and fret. She was convinced that one of us would eventually cut off a hand, and now when I think about that naked saw blade spinning about a foot away from Dad and me, I imagine her fears were justified. The footing was never smooth, and the weight of the cut pieces varied from featherlight to almost too heavy for me to carry. So yes, we were not exactly the poster children for the National Safety Council.

Somehow, we managed to make it through years of that labor without even losing a finger, so perhaps we were safer than it looked.

This image is not us (it’s a generation older, a photo I found via Google) but the operation is very similar. Our saw blade was about a foot larger in diameter, and the PTO belt from the tractor came out from beneath the seat, so it was fairly level rather than the high angle seen here. But I can definitely sympathize with the kid in the foreground plugging his ears.

dads log mil

Advertisement

Blogroll

  • Blank Slate Press
  • Cornerpost Press
  • John Gibson – Missouri Ozarker
  • John Mort's Blog
  • Kaitlyn McConnell's Ozarks Alive
  • Larry Wood's Ozark history blog
  • Lens & Pen Press blog
  • Missouri Writers' Guild
  • My website
  • Ozarks Law and Economy
  • River Hills Traveler
  • Sarah Johnson's Historical Fiction Blog
  • Show Me Oz
  • Show Me Progress
  • The Course of Our Seasons
  • The Opulent Opossum
  • The Outside Bend
  • Vincent Anderson's Ozark history blog
  • WordPress.com News

My Facebook page

My Facebook page

My Twitter feed

  • RT @JBDailyAuthor: Launching today, a Public Defender Turned Novelist @reynagentin and Award-Winning Short Stories @SWiegenstein. Great int… 7 hours ago
  • RT @JBDailyAuthor: Art and Design Inspired one novel @susansetkin and A Path Darkened by Tragedy @barbararubinauthor, another. Listen today… 1 day ago
  • Women can't show their arms on the Missouri House floor, but the legislature is perpetually showing its ass. npr.org/2023/01/13/114… 1 week ago
  • Saints preserve me from ever reaching a point so low that I have to blurb my own book. twitter.com/ammarmufasa/st… 1 week ago
  • I read a book a while back about the Republican House leadership struggle. It was called "Lord of the Flies." 3 weeks ago
Follow @swiegenstein

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Follow me on social media!

  • View stevewiegensteinauthor’s profile on Facebook
  • View @swiegenstein’s profile on Twitter

Slant of Light Facebook page

Slant of Light Facebook page

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • stevewiegenstein
    • Join 284 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • stevewiegenstein
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...