Man's Work
September 15, 2011 A couple weeks ago Ezra walked up to me with Will's power drill and pointed to the battery on the charger.
Put the battery on it, Mama.
I did.
Then he pointed at the star bit on the drill and said Change that, Mama and pointed at the philips head bit in the case.
I did.
In retrospect, that would have been a good time to start supervising him.
But I did not.
Later Will walked outside and found a 2x4 with two 2.5" wood screws drilled all the way into it. He asked our six year old friend Harper if she had done that. Wide-eyed, she shook her head and said, Ezra did that.
Okay. Three-year-olds and power tools are a natural pairing. So we decided to get him a chainsaw.
334.365 102mm f4.5 1/100 ISO200Just kidding.
Well, not about the drill. That part actually happened. But we haven't given him free reign with the chainsaw. Obviously you have to be at least four to operate a chainsaw by yourself safely.
I'm particularly concerned about the safe operation of chainsaws because certain men in my life have taken a keen interest in forest management of late. Huge forests of Lodgepole Pine are dying in parts of Colorado's mountains because of a pine beetle infestation and all those dead trees are a big, scary fire hazard. This inspires a chainsaw enthusiasm in this certain set of white collar men who, it is fair to observe, work with computers instead of sharp, powerful saws, and have legs I care about.
Luckily my dad is a logger, so he came to Colorado last weekend to give these men a short chainsaw masterclass.
It was a good opportunity for yuppies to use loud two-stroke engines and be manly for a weekend.
Though as our friend Alex (a database administrator by trade) put it, Sometimes I think I should be working for a living, but then every time I do a full day of real work I think to myself, "Where's my keyboard?"
family, logging, mountains, pine beetle | in Project 365
Reader Comments (1)
Incredible! Your boy is awesome and yes, major props to mom...right up until you trusted a man of any age to use a power tool safely. Having grown up in the rugged forests of New Brunswick, Canada I can't recommend enough that you buy your hubby and anyone else you love a pair of these:
http://amzn.to/chainsaw_chaps
Not only are they incredibly sexy, they'll allow him to keep his legs--handy for running away from an awkwardly felled tree. Oh, and safety glasses please.
Brilliant post Corinna and I just love that shot of your son.