Woodpile Man
Truckload 03/30/2010
 
  I tried buying a truck load of logs from this guy a couple of years ago. I had a call into him and even spoke to him I think, but the logs never came and I was able to get enough wood just by scrounging around and cutting a tree or two here and there when a friend needed a tree cut, so I didn't pursue the truck load. But near the end of this winter I decided I didn't want to leave refilling the new shed to chance, and I called the guy again and asked him to bring a load over. His name is Rick and he’s been logging for forever around here. His logging trucks go up and down my road pretty regularly, and I always wondered what it would be like to get a whole truck load of logs.

This heating season is almost over, though we still need to have the fire going some days. Like today, it’s cold and rainy and we’ve been using the stove all day. But the big shed, the new shed, is almost empty and there is plenty of room to store new firewood. The old shed is full, and the wood in it has been drying for a year now. With that wood and  the temporary shed I made in September next to it full of wood that I got from Ed’s land across the street (after the electric company cut down trees that were near their wires), I have enough fuel for the 2010/2011 winter. But now is the time to get the wood for the 2011/2012 winter, so it will be dry.

The logs Rick brings are the tops of trees that are no good for cutting into boards.  But even though they are just tops, they are about 20 feet long and thick enough to make me wonder if I could use some for tables or benches or beams. Anyway, Rick said he’d call before he came and he said he’d probably come Saturday. The Wednesday before Saturday I got home from work earlier than I thought I would. I was supposed to tutor a student who was out of school for a while, but when I got there, no one was home. I found out later that their car broke down and they were stuck in Kingston. Fran went to Kingston after work to shop, so no one would have been home when the phone rang at 3:30 if all had gone as it was supposed to. It was Rick, and he was in Kingston too, and he was all loaded up with logs, but the person who was supposed to get them changed his mind. The whole thing reeked of divine intervention. This was the load I was meant to have. “Be there in about half an hour,” Rick said. “I’ll be here,” I told him.

When he pulled into the driveway, the truck dwarfed everything around it. The small house seemed even smaller, the driveway was inadequate, the electric wires coming to the house from the pole across the street had to be lifted higher with a long hickory stick I had stored in the bungalow. When Rick was parked where he could unload the wood near the shed, he jumped out of the truck and climbed up to the seat in back where the logs were, and he got the log grabber going and started grabbing logs and laying them down on the lawn. He worked fast. It was like he was told by god that if he wasn’t done in five minutes he’d spend the rest of his life in the rear of the Kerhonkson post office sorting mail. And he was finished in five minutes!

Me, I took the pictures below and kind of grinned the whole time.

 
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The Hooded Man
 


Comments

Feobe
05/12/2010 05:18

i just thought i would take a look at your site. it's very nice. thank you!

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