Working in the woods used to be a most dangerous job. Even when I was younger and not allowed to use the chainsaw, one always had to watch out that the horse didn’t step on your toes, or peeled pulp didn’t slide off and hit you on the way by. Peeled pulp was very slippery and hauling the pulp out on the old two horse sleds was not the smoothest road. When the sled hit a rock or stump, that pulp might just shoot right off that sled. You always had to watch out that the ole mare didn’t bite you or slap you with her tail.  She was not a pleasant horse and quite lazy at times.  You learned one way or another to always keep watch of what was going on around you.

This one winter, I think it was about 1982, My brother and I had paired up for the winter and we were cutting for D.C. Morton into Kennebago somewhere on the Morton cut-off road. This particular time, I was the skidder operator and he was the chopper.  It was a very cold winter and lots of snow. The snow was getting so deep, they were considering making us shovel out around the trees before we cut them down.  This would have taken up a lot more time, so brother and I set our piece up so when I pulled out fallen trees, I would pull them right by trees that were going to be cut that day.  I will stop here a moment to explain that working in the woods during the winter was not really that bad. You did not have to stop to limb most of the fir trees.  If the twitch road was crooked enough and it was set up properly, all of the twisting and turning would break the branches off.  If that didn’t work, you would back the load into a small stand of trees and that would break off the majority of the branches. All you had to do then was cut the rat tails off.  But, still, the cold and the snow would get to you especially when you opened the lunch pail, and everything was frozen. The coffee would get cold very quickly. We made the agreement the first thing of the day, that the chopper would start a nice campfire while the skidder operator would take a trip into the woods to pack the snow down around the trees.  We set the campsite area up with short junks of wood for chairs.  We had sticks for toasting our sandwiches.  The skidder operator would cut down an old standing dead tree and bring it out for firewood.  Nice and comfortable it was to sit there and have lunch.  Even though the wind might be blowing, and it was well below zero.

On this particular day, my brother built the fire next to an old cedar tree.  We learned that if the fire was close to a tree, then the smoke would go up the tree and we could sit there, toasting our sandwiches and just enjoy the fire and warmth.  Our campfire was so welcoming ole MacCintosh decided to join us.  I have to stop here to explain a bit about ole Mac.  He was a jumpy sort of fella.  If you walked into a room and he was working, you had to make sure he knew you were there. If you spoke and jumped him, whatever he had in his hands went flying.  Many times, the wrench he was holding went through a window.  You really, really had to make sure he knew you were there.  Of course, we did take advantage of him once in a while when he was in the garage.  But here he was sitting there enjoying our fire and eating his lunch.

As time went by, I notice that the smoke from the fire was no longer going up the outside of the tree, but, was going up the inside of the tree.  This was great, except wood burns.  I kept an eye on the top of the tree and noticed it started moving a bit. With a motion of my head and movement of the eyes, I showed my brother what was going on with the tree.  Ole Mac was still enjoying his lunch and chatting away.  I could see the tree was burning quite well at the bottom and was getting weaker by the second. The tree was acting like a chimney now and making a pretty good sound with the fire roaring up the inside of the tree. The more it roared, the hotter it got.  The hotter it got, the more it listed toward our lunch site.  Now brother was keeping an eye on the tree also, but at the same time trying to keep ole Mac chatting away.  Mac was sitting on the outer ring of our group and the tree was headed just beyond where he sat. Shortly, I decided it was time for me to get up and go do something.  About the same time brother stood up and stretched a bit but making sure ole Mac continued chatting and not watching the tree.

Finally, silently, the tree landed about two feet away from Mac.  Everything he had went flying.  Lunch box went one way, thermos another and sandwiches another.  His coffee was all over him.  Now, the words that came out of that fella, I can not put down on paper. But there was a lot of them.  He swore up and down, we planned that. Swore some more about never trusting the two of us again. You know, he never did come back to eat lunch with us ever again.  Huh… go figger.

So, you see folks, work can be very dangerous in the woods.  Its not only the forest you have to careful with.  You have to keep in mind, you are working with old time Mainers too. We sure do like a good laugh.

Have a nice day now