Back at the Beginning

It is part of my history that as a teenager, I spent part of a summer in Northern Idaho working for Chuck Waterman, a church friend who was a National Guard pilot who had extensive timber interest that he managed as well.  Chuck needed some property "thinned" of dense second growth fir which was sold in Priest River as pulpwood for west coast paper mills.  It was no fun, hot, dirty and difficult.  The trees were skinny, covered with dense limbs, all of which had to be cut off before we could drag it out and truck it to the rail yard.  I gave it several weeks but I really wasn't any good at it and hardly made Chuck what it cost to support me.  We agreed it wasn't working and I pointedly remember telling his wife Lois that the experience taught me that I needed to "stay in school".

Well, for the last few days I've been inspired to do some maintenance on the common grounds of our neighborhood.  We have a drainage pond that we are obliged to operate since we largely cleared the hillside for our homes overlooking the Snoqualmie River.  It stabilizes runoff and smooths out discharge from rainfall.  Its most recent inspection called out the encroaching presence of multiple Alder saplings which naturally sprout on open ground such as we created at our pond. They needed to go.

I felt like I could make short work of them with my homeowner chain saw, so for the last 2 days I've spent my mornings lumberjacking the pond.  I've given it 3-4 hours both days.  Its been sunny. Its seems remarkably Hot.  Its been hot, dirty, and difficult.  At the end of my shift today, I sat on the tailgate of the truck and wondered if I could get consulting fees for the time and effort I put in. Then I thought of Chuck and Lois and realized I was back at the beginning again.  Still not very good at it. But at least I got that education behind me now.  Graduated from the 25th grade and still combing sawdust out of what's left of my hair. Stop laughing, Chuck.....