Work Day at Andy's Place

Had a wonderful time working on Andy's place upstream of Leaburg, downstream of Vida. Andy served in the same unit I did a decade or two later and is now in the NG. He is having some serious health issues so Vince organized a work day to clear up his place since he can't any more. Somebody organized 60 volunteers to come on down and bear a hand on his over run forested lot. Before the White Elephant NG bus arrived with the volunteers from Portland, I attacked a blackberry jungle that had come roaring back in the 90 degree stress panel I built to hang the gate on. I used my 357 chainsaw. Love the name. As the berries splattered on my saw chain, I looked down and found one of Boone's balls that had landed in the thicket. He had been running around trying to get people to throw sticks. I tell him: "We don't do sticks--go find a ball." I held it up and as he came running, I threw it in the Leaburg canal a few times to play wash the dog. When the volunteers came trickling down the dead end road I learned that they were a company of accountants. I had somehow suspected that they would be NGs. Vince, the NG rep held a briefing and then started looking for jobs different people. I wound up with four young men who looked physically fit. A fir had fallen over across the fence and the top just crossed the wire. I had cut thirty feet of the top of the log before the gang arrived. I ribboned the old wire fence that had disappeared into the black berries so no one would trip on it. I continued cutting the log and brushing the line. The stout young lads packed the rounds and shot put them over the fence. I cut the rounds shorter as the tree got bigger. It started getting hot. Soon all the wood was across the fence in a big heap. The macho men were all over splitting the rounds. None of them had ever done this fun. They learned that it takes more than just muscle to bust wood. This was a particularly tough bunch of rounds. Soon we had one pair busting rounds in half with a sledge and wedge. The shaker would throw the halves to the other pair who would chop them down with an eight pound maul. I taught them to position themselves so if the head flew off their maul, it would fly into the brush and not hit somebody. Another crew worked on graveling the road with stolen gravel from a BLM stockpile. Mike Dalton brought his PU bed trailer. Somebody brought a plate compactor. Three people saw where I had cut the berries in the fence corner and attacked the berries with loppers. I used Andy's truck to drive around the house with a load of split wood as a crew was digging in barko mulch trails--one to the woodshed. Somebody used the power polesaw I had borrowed and cut back a lot of stuff that had encroached onto the house. The volunteers were moving cut vegetation like ants to form a huge pile in the middle of the yard. It will have to be swamper burned this winter. Boone was in hog heaven. There were dozens of people willing to throw his new found ball. There were four or five other dogs on the scene and they all played well together. Somebody brought about 40 pizzas from Ike's just up the road. After lunch we hit it again in the heat. The macho men finished up the wood and left the last round for a chopping block. Channel 16 came out and needed some action footage so some volunteers stacked the busted wood. If you see it on the news tonight, I'll have you know, I cut that wood. Andy had to leave at 1300 for a Cat scan or some such. There is no good news. Boone wore down and didn't bother people to throw the ball any more. I gathered my gear, loaded my PU and fled the scene. N