Andrew Schrauben

After playing hockey on Sunday, we headed over to Megan's family farm to cut wood. Before that, we were treated to a yummy lunch of homemade mac and cheese, homemade dill pickles, and some flavored hot cocoa (among other things). Satisfied, we dressed into our cold-weather gear and hopped on the wagon as Megan's dad Greg towed us with his tractor out to the trees.

We were clearing dead trees from a swamp, a task made much easier since the water was frozen solid so it felt like dry land under all the snow. In fact, you could hardly tell if you were on land or water most of the time. Greg brought two wagons out for us to load up, and among the group we had three chainsaws to put to work. Most of the work, however, was the arduous task of hauling the cut logs from the swamp to the wagon on the other side of a fence.

One of the highlights of the evening was Amanda using a chainsaw for the first time in her life! I made sure to take a few photos and also caught the event on video:



A few hours went by and slowly but surely we loaded up both wagons with wood. The sun was setting and it was time to head back to the farm, where yet another meal awaited us.


Haulin' out. Left to right are:
Eric (head barely peeking above wood, far left)
Megan (pink scarf)
Ryan (dark yellow hat)
Amanda (gray brimmed hat)
Kenny (bright orange hat)
Greg (Megan's dad, driving the tractor)


Heading back to the farm with the first load of wood.


Megan's family farm - the little tractor is towing our first load of wood.


Looking back across the field as we haul our last load back to the farm.

Before sitting down to eat we took a little tour of the farm, visiting some of the resident cows and calves. Those calves can be pretty cute!


Amanda gets a friendly greeting.


One of the cute calves at Megan's farm.

During the farm tour we noticed a neat phenomenon: steam hands! We'd worked up a sweat chopping wood and hauling logs but with the sun below the horizon, the air cooled off quickly. Add in a hot human hand and a well placed light bulb, and see the results:




Ryan proves to Megan that he's one hot dude.

Dinner was yummy, of course, this time with tuna casserole, chicken salad, pickled beets, more flavored cocoa, and finally a "taste test" of the frosting for Ryan and Megan's wedding cake. Naturally we started talking about weddings and us elder folk provided Ryan and Megan (and Eric, since he's getting hitched a month after Ryan) with some cynical wedding advice. Basically we explained how we don't remember any of the details that seemed so important back then. Plus, all the stuff that got screwed up, it didn't really affect anything. My mom had the best tale: "My dad missed my wedding - he spent the day in jail for driving drunk and my mom was too angry to bail him out! But I didn't mind."