A telltale sign that fall is just around the corner is Log Splittin’ Day on the Farm. By the time Terry and I arrived, Dad had been up early frying bacon and sausage and whipping out homemade, light, buttery biscuits to fortify us throughout the day. Washed down with an icy cold Coca-Cola, we were ready to get to work.
Positioned between the cabin and the lean-to, was a log splitter on steroids which made the task crazy easy. It was sheer, caveman grunting satisfaction of raw strength and power as the logs were cleaved in half with the push of a lever.
Jill had to hustle over to one of the Airbnb’s she manages and flip it this morning for a guest check-in at 3pm. Because the turn around was so quick, Janice volunteered to help for a couple of hours. I dropped Janice off and returned later and on the way back to the Farm she treated us all to Whitt’s Barbecue and baked beans for lunch. I brought along cole slaw and a Greek pasta salad to round out the meal.
Dad had spent many weeks finding felled trees around the Farm, dragging, cutting, and piling them all together in the adjacent field for a day like today. The boys took a chainsaw to logs that were too big to move and then loaded them onto the bucket attachment of the tractor and then dropped them next to the splitter where they were split and stacked.
As a side note, it is football time in Tennessee so it is worth mentioning that the Vanderbilt Commodores defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide 40 to 35 in a jaw-dropping victory. According to stats, Vandy has only beaten Alabama twice in the last 55 years. Once was in Nashville in 1969 and again in Tuscaloosa, AL in 1984.
