Plan B, With a Chainsaw

Our big Plan A idea for this past Saturday entailed planting in our garden.  We're getting really excited about it...all of us.  The children have been asking if they could each have their own area to be in charge of, and since this garden is approximately 20-30 times bigger than what we had at the old house, we're going to let them have at it.

But...it was really nasty on Saturday.  Cold, and rainy off and on.  Yuck with a capital Y.

Since we have a To Do list for our homestead that is approximately one mile long, Jas quickly came up with Plan B.

But let me back up a bit.

We have a tree.  A tree that looks good. Good and dead, actually.  I would be more specific than "tree"...but we have no idea what kind it is.  Good homesteaders, right?

And this dead tree is very close to our power lines.  Like 5-or-6-feet-away close.  

We've been knowing we needed to do something about it, and I just assumed we'd call an "expert", especially with it being that close to the power lines.  

But as we've talked about it over the months, Jas said he thought he could do it.  I always thought he was joking.  Surely.

And then Saturday morning I look out the kitchen door, and he's got this rigged up and he's going to town on that tree.

Get this: he watched some Youtube videos on Friday...and now he knew exactly what to do.  (So, I'm not the only one in this family that gets (false) confidence from Youtube videos!)


Watching some Youtube videos is almost as good as staying at a Holiday Inn Express, in terms of making you smart.  (those commercials cracked us up...and we had a fun time joking about that on Saturday)

He is so scary smart and capable of anything he sets his mind to.  I sure am glad he's on my team!

Dangitall, if both of those big trunks didn't come down exactly where he intended for them to.  

And it didn't hurt that I was praying fervently (from quite a distance) the whole time: "Lord, please don't let it come down on the lines...Lord, please don't let Jas get hurt!"

Now that he has proven how capable he is at this particular task...I told Jas I would prefer he never cut down another tree.  I'm afraid he'd be overconfident and sloppy due to "the big head."

Of course, Jas did have all sorts of "help" with this project.  We were all out there (except E, who was with Marissa), in between the dangerous parts, that is.

This sledgehammer weighed more than G thought it would.

Don't even ask about these get-ups.

We all pitched in to start picking up branches as Jas cut them into smaller pieces.

But instead of lugging them to the burn pile in the garden area, or throwing them in the wheelbarrow...

...Gabriel just threw them.  Anywhere.

But when you're two, and this cute...

...you can get away with shenanigans like that.



What I learned on Saturday?

A smart man...

...skillfully wielding a dangerous piece of equipment...

...is very sexy.

Even when he ends up with saw dust all over him.