Oh, isn’t it fun kicking up leaves? Yep! But it’s not so much fun raking them up, especially when the wind keeps blowing and raindrops keep falling on your head!
Such is so up here in cattle country. The rains came and the winds blew, removing all of the beautifully coloured leaves from all of the broad leafed deciduous trees. In two short nights, the colour has left our forests and the leaves now lie thickly on the ground. It looks like Mother Nature has decided to call it quits for the season. Winter is on its way.
Nevertheless, on our way to Keady Livestock Market last Tuesday, I really noticed that there is still a lot of grey, brown and shades of green that exist in the cedar, pine and the tall columnar black spruce. This is profusely accented by the occasional white birch and the many bright yellow, soon to drop, needles of the tamarack, known by some as larch. This is the only needled tree that drops its needles in the fall. It has a definite hard wood similar to the hemlock, which just so happens to bring back some not so good memories of years long past.
We were mid-centre of the shortest month – February. I was possibly mid-centre of my double digit preteens; the temperature had dropped to about 16 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. It was an unusually cold, cold day. My dad and I had gone back to our corner few acres of bush. We were there to select and cut down sufficient trees to make firewood for the coming next winter. It would remain in a loose pile to dry throughout the summer.
Coincidently, he had bought me a brand new axe. It had not yet chopped a single block of wood. It was customary to light a small bonfire, firstly to warm our hands, secondly to warm the tools that we would be using, and thirdly to burn the accumulating brush.
My dad had casually mentioned that I should warm the blade of my new axe. As we had no ready kindling, the fire was slow-starting. I, in my haste, grabbed my new axe, and confronting the nearest tree, decided to chop off some of its low-down limbs. Whack! Whack! It was that easy.
The extra limbs on the fire made it flare up and burn. I remember well how warm the flames felt. They would warm up my new axe, which I was more than just proud of, as I knew none of my schoolmates were as lucky as I was. When I laid my axe down beside the glowing coals to warm it, I noticed something was wrong. There were two half-nickel-sized gaps on the edge of the blade, one for each limb that I had severed from the tree.
I was certainly disappointed. My dad was certainly disappointed, as it took two days’ wages at the time to make its purchase. His only comment to me was, “Why didn’t you cut the low limbs off of the cedar? Tamarack is a hard, hard, wood, especially when it is frozen. You should have warmed the axe first.”
Live and learn, as the saying so goes, but it just so happens that you don’t learn everything from books.
Take care, ‘cause we care.
barrie@barriehopkins.ca
519-986-4105