BUILDING SARAH'S SHELVES FROM SCRATCH

          George Probst, a friend of mine, and I were going to get some lumber for Sarah's new pantry last weekend, so we can build her wall length shelves, a work station and perhaps another work table on wheels she can put wherever needed.  However, it was raining, which lately here at the base of Green Mountain has been almost a daily occurrence throughout the summer and now, a good portion of autumn; snow has even been forecast for this Thursday and Friday but has now been delayed until this coming Tuesday.  Like Sarah's delicious breads, sticky-buns, cookies, pies and other goodies she bakes from scratch, George and I planned to build her pantry from scratch and so, Monday afternoon, the sun shining brightly with no threat of rain, we along with his wife Margaret headed off into the forest to select some trees for this endeavour.
          George and Margaret have another piece of property that has a river running along one side and it is fully treed - many beautiful deciduous and coniferous trees stretching tall, straight and skywards, which are very marketable.  However, like George and Margaret, I see the value of the land in having trees not having them logged, especially in the disgraceful manner they are taken these days - legalized rape of the land is what I call it.  George and I are verified old men in our 70's and Margaret is no longer a spring chick either, so as we wandered around through the forest searching for suitable trees, we were very careful not to lose our balance as we stepped over fallen trees, branches and waded through the brush - a simple fall at this age, one when I was younger, would have simply just shrugged off, can now be bone-breaking.  The softwood trees we were searching for would hopefully have recently died and just naturally fallen so their wood would be suitable. However, if they had fallen a long time ago and laid too long on the ground, or for that fact, standing too long after they died, they would be rotten and be of no use.
          Using a sharp axe to check if a dead tree was rotten by chipping off its bark, George finally determined, which trees would be suitable for Sarah's pantry.  They were all spruce trees; two were already lying on the ground and the larger one had snapped off about halfway, probably during a wind storm, which he cut down with a chain saw.  While he bucked the two small fallen trees into 6' lengths, Margaret cleared a trail to the truck and I carried them out, each small log weighing approximately 60-70 lbs.  The larger tree he cut down, he had to rip the 6' lengths into quarters as it was too big around and heavy to carry.  The quarters were still too heavy  for me to carry, so Margaret grabbed an end and we both hauled them to the trailer, which after it was filled, weighed about half a ton, about all the small trailer could handle, we then headed for George's wood-working shop.

Sarah's Pantry Newly Milled Shelving Drying Out

         After we ate a good wholesome meal that Margaret had fixed, George and I carried the small logs into his workshop and began turning them into boards for the shelves and uprights.  Within a few hours of pealing bark, planing and then ripping the logs into 1"x6"x6' boards, we were finished.  Well, not quite finished; we have to go back and get a few more logs to make some thicker boards for the work tables.
          When I arrived home, I still had pieces of sawdust clinging to my clothes and in my hair and a lot of pitch was stuck to my hands.  As I stripped down for a hot bath, the aroma of the forest and the trees we had harvested still clung to my clothes and body.  Although the work was somewhat strenuous and I hurt like hell when it was over and still do after two days later, I am looking forward to returning to George and Margaret's land, to the beauty of the trees, the freshness of the forest - anyone who believes that living trees and plants have no feelings are just plain ignorant, especially since it's been proven scientifically that they are not just objects growing out of the ground, they actually do possess some sort of feelings..
          Apparently a small group of scientists placed a large plant and a bowl of water containing a goldfish in an otherwise empty room.  They applied stress pads to the plant, much the same as when they do a stress test on a human.  At the beginning, the pen movement on a piece of paper was just a line - that is - until they tipped the bowl over and the goldfish was struggling for its survival on the floor - then it was a different story.  Just like a human that's under stress, the pen drew lines like crazy.  Whether the plant was concerned about the goldfish's dilemma or its own safety was unknown but the stress test certainly proved that the plant indeed did have feelings - cheers - eh!