[RHClarke]

And what a beauty she was! It was a great drive out to the barn this afternoon. The Canada geese were winging their way south, it was warm and sunny and the Moody Blues were on the radio singing what else, Tuesday Afternoon! It almost made this cynical old soldier feel downright hippy-like.

Bob was at the barn filling an army trailer with split wood for the long winter nights that will surely come soon. After we loaded the trailer, we headed back into the bush to harvest more vertical energy. We were joined by Bruce, Bob's next door neighbour, who filled another army trailer with the smaller diameter wood from the upper branches. He too burns wood to heat his place.

While Bruce took on that chore, Bob and I felled a few more substantial trees, that shook the ground when they fell. Bob got a two for one deal on one cut: a big old maple we cut fell into a good sized birch and took it down with it. The rest of the afternoon was spent hauling the very big and long sticks back to the ever growing wood pile.

Just as it was starting to get dark, we dumped Bruce's last load and sat around and drank some beer. We reflected upon the excellent weather we've had over the past four days and the amount of wood we all hauled out of the forest.

Bob, ever the gentleman thanked us all (including Grant in absentia) for the help. It was good hard work, and Bob was very appreciative, but to me, it is nothing less than "paying the bills".