ATV LOGGING

       I sure wish we had some exciting activity to report out here in the country at Grandpa's Farm. I tell you it is down right boring living out here in Ho Hum County so far from the big city. Granny and I have been sitting here counting the horses we can see from our house. I think we got up to about eighteen.
       The agenda for today includes getting up at about 4:30 A.M. for no other reason than that I get up about that time to go to the bathroom and put more wood in the fire. By then my mind is going and I might as well forget about going back to sleep. So I sit in the chair until the fire gets good and hot, then I damp it down and try to go back to bed.
       Today, as usual the old brain has too many sparks in it and I lie awake and think about all the exciting things I could do today. I need to work on my shop - both inside and out. I could fix my little red trailer which has a taildark that needs to be turned into a taillight. Or I could go to town and do some work on my son's rental house. It needs to have some insulation and siding put on it among about two thousand other things. I could work on the Honey-do list that Granny keeps on a yellow pad (but my eyes just don't focus good on yellow.)  Or I could sit here and tell stories.
       Did I tell you about my latest adventure with grandson No. 2? Granny and I own some property, with two other families, up in the hills about thirty-five miles. Our fall activities include firewood gathering. We go up there and cut up and haul out firewood. We have already cut the easy stuff that you can drive a pickup to so now we are trying to figure out how to get logs out that we can't get to very easily.
       We tried using a tractor and that works fairly well on big stuff if there is room to maneuver. We made a road to get access to one area and hauled out the big stuff. Then we found a lot of old blowdown lodgepole pine lying on the hillside. If you've done any wood cutting you know that lodgepole pine doesn't usually get very big but it does burn fairly well. Most of this was eight to ten inches at the big end (I'm too polite to say butt) and about 35 to 50 feet long. We tried to drag them with the tractor but it is pretty slow.
We decided to use a 4-wheeler to drag them instead. We took our 4-wheelers up on my car trailer that I use for hauling hay, tractors, logs, firewood, well tile, apples and occasionally even a car, not to mention four wheelers.
       We got up there, off loaded the ATV's and started to scout firewood. We had drug some logs out to the road earlier with a tractor so decided to drag these to the meadow where we could load them on the trailer. No. 2 grandson got that job while I scouted firewood. I went in to where those lodgepole logs were and began to scout around for a way to pull them out going downhill.
       Did I happen to mention that there was about a half inch of snow on the ground? It was great for pulling logs downhill but not for going uphill. We could hardly get the 4-wheelers to back up uphill. Anyway, I scouted around and found the rudiments of a trail (the deer had rudimented it earlier) and I figured I could cut out the brush, old logs, scab trees and deer sign enough to get us through it. So I began cutting.
By this time No. 2 GS had dragged the logs down and was looking for work. He nosed the ATV down the trail I had been cutting just as I finished most of the trail clearing. There was one log I didn't want to cut a section out of because it was too good. He managed to get the ATV over the log and we hooked onto it with a short cable we keep for just such a purpose. I went up the log and cut the top off about 30 feet up and he began to drag it.
       It slid right along to the top of the bank and then he got his first look at where he had to go to get to the road. I won't say it was straight down but it was steep. He let out a whoop, changed his position on the 4-wheeler and charged down the hill. That log is what kept him tied down, upright, straight and slow enough to make it down. He drug it off as I went about cutting the big ends (I'm too polite to say butts) off more logs and then cutting off limbs and the tops so they would drag. In no time at all No. 2 GS was back up and wanting to know where the next one was.
       We did this for about an hour and then I ran out of gas (and so did the chainsaw). I decided that I could drag a couple of short logs with my 4 wheeler on the way back to the truck to fill up the saw. We hooked up three short logs and bungeed the saw onto my 4 wheeler and I began to go down the hill with No. 2 GS shouting advice. "Stay to the right. Watch out for the big rocks! Better ride sidesaddle! Watch out for the brush at the bottom!" I tell you - he sounds more like his grandma everyday.
       Then I saw the trail!
It had a big groove in it from the logs he had drug already. There were two big rocks that the 4 wheeler had to go over and then there was the steep part and the brush and the sticks! I changed my position to sidesaddle, stayed to the right, ducked under the tree limbs, went over the rocks and promptly got bounced off the ATV. Now I was running downhill alongside the ATV with the logs chasing me and I was hoping I would reach the bottom before the logs caught up.
       (Did I mention that I am pushing sixty? By the time I reached the bottom I think I was pushing it too fast!)
       I made it just barely.
I decided right then that it was time for a division of labor. Cutting the logs loose was my exciting job and No. 2 GS could have the boring job of dragging the logs. (He is six foot two and 210 pounds so you can see that dragging logs - with or without a 4-wheeler - is obviously his strong suit.)
       Well, I am sorry if I got your hopes up that something exciting might happen out here in Ho Hum County. This place is just so laid back! If you want quiet and peaceful days filled in with a little monotonous activity you should come here to live. Ho Hum is the term for this kind of life...... and I like it that way.