Pete and I went up late Friday. Didn't get into Camp until close to midnight. Checked a few things and got all set up but we didn't even light a fire. Ronny, Brandon and Zack got in early Saturday morning. Got up had a cup of coffee and pretty much started right in.
Brandon did some wiring and he and Peter got the heater put in. I've never been a skier but we did ski Sunday River once and The Camp is now 'easy' for winter activity. No need to feed the wood stove if you didn't want to. Bring a couple of gallons of home heating oil and you've got heat for the weekend. No pictures. Have to add one later.
Ronny hauled up a bunch of lumber to do something with the outhouse. Peter's original plan was to raise it up a bit and put in a real toilet but the intended toilet never made the trip up. When it came time to pack the trailer he found out it was broken. I ended up stacking all the lumber behind the well and the plan seems to be shaping up to just built a new outhouse on Labor Day. The feeling is that Ronny and Sean can punch that out before the lunch time ride.
The other big item this weekend was to fell two big trees that hung over the back of The Camp. The first one was alive and growing and the 'lower' branches were touching the power line to the house and the peak and roof line. A majority of the branches were on the Camp side and it hung too far over the back of the Camp. We tied a rope around the tree, running it around another tree across the road and down the hill to the truck. Zack was driving the truck waiting for the signal.
(Our kids aren't so much 'kids' anymore!)
Ronny had dropped a few smaller trees already to clear the way for the big tree. We all talked about where it was going to go and that if the pull from the truck did what we wanted it to, then the tree would not touch the Camp. I kept asking about the limb that was already dangling near the power line and should we cut that first? Nope. It's all coming at once.
It dropped clean and right along the edge of the road.
Look at the moss on the roof.
The second big one was a huge old dead Birch. It was curved and split into two half's high up and leaned to the back of the Camp. Tied the tree off again around a tree across the road and down the hill to Zack in the truck. Ronny was over half way through the cut on the back side when the chain saw bound up. Wouldn't budge. Peter started in with the other saw but then stopped. We put more tension on the rope line with the truck and the top of the tree started swaying a little. The rope was pretty damn taunt. The saw was free now. Pete was talking about another line to a second truck going up the hill too so I went and squeezed his truck past Zack at the bottom of the road, under the rope and up the hill a ways.
Ronny mentioned that we can't run the line straight up the hill, it has to go around the same tree first and then up the hill. That way the tension is all in the same direction... away from the Camp. Away! Good plan. Pete tightened up his line and the top swayed a bit again! Ronnie fired up the saw, Brandon was down the hill with Zack and I was going to wave when it came time to pull.
I was looking only at the top of the tree. I could see Ronny working the saw, he was rocking it and pushing back and forth, but I was looking up. Only up, at the top of the tree. It looked heavy with old age. I wasn't sure when the exact moment would come and I hoped to recognize it when it came, but I couldn't look down for fear of missing what ever the hell I was watching for. One of those, "You'll know it when you see it".
Then the top of the tree started to vibrate and move against the sky. I was at a good angle. I had positioned myself so I could see the peak of the house as a reference point with the bright blue sky as the background for the tree. I had been standing with my arms parallel to the ground, bent at the elbows with forearms up in the air. Palms toward each truck. When the tree started it's topple from the sky above the Camp, gravity was pulling it the way we didn't want it to fall. It was moving and this was clearly my sign. I pushed my hands out to each truck, snapped them back up and pushed away again and started screaming as loud as I could, GO! GO! GO! GO! Pull! Pull! Pull! I was waving my arms and yelling like a mad man.
The tree hesitated in the sky for the briefest second, Ronny was still pushing the chain saw and then it started falling away from the Camp. As it was falling down it started shooting sideways, toward the road. The trucks had pulled perfectly in sync and dragged the tree bouncing and skidding across the road as it came down. It was against the natural order of things and better then we had hoped for. The tree was down, the Camp was fine and all was right with the weekend. You can see the skid mark across the road in the picture.
Of course after it was down there was yelling and high fives and everyone congratulated each other on knowing exactly where it was going to land... never any doubt... total control...
But damn it. Now you have to cut it up and lump it all off the road. We had taken a break when Paul came down from the top of the mountain and couldn't get by. We only kept him waiting five minutes or so. We were close to done by then.
And naturally there's no pictures of me workin' way harder than Zack, because I have the camera!
Ronny, Zack and Brandon took off about 7 that night. Peter and I put up some plastic sheeting through the front bedroom celling and down the wall Sunday morning. It's amazing how much better it looks with something as simple as that covering the insulation. We had also picked up a refrigerator at my Sister & Brother in-laws before we left and put it in place of the old one. The old one got pushed out the door to it's new home on the front porch. It might look a little Hicksville but the inside one 'll be for food and outside for drinks for Labor Day Weekend.
We had also cleaned out the the fire trough too. I forgot there were four inch circles drilled into the bottom of it. Those haven't had air through them in three years it was so full and clogged.
The old journal we write in was finally full and Pete had gotten a new one at the store. Kelly collects them and has them going back from when the tradition first started. The first thing I wrote in the new journal was I ain't coming on work weekends with Ronny or any of his people any more. Gettin' too old and can't even pretend to keep up.
-Sul
Oh yeah, all the pics came from my phone camera
and like most other pages, click an image to blow it up.
and on to the rest of the pictures...
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