Deflection

Although it was sixteen degrees this morning, it did warn up to 34 degrees. It was well on to the thirties when I went walking for thirty minutes around the woods on the UW-W property. When I was about six years old, my grandfather purchased the property. It had been used as a pasture land for the milk cows for many years, but it was a couple of thousand feet from the barn (a long cow path). Grandpa removed some of the trees, but manly concentrated on keeping the underbrush down. He built wooden boxes on his Oliver 88 with one for the chainsaw and the other for log chains and gas and chain oil for the chainsaw. I spent a number hours working with him in the woods. We would pull logs and build fires to burn the wood and underbrush. On some days, my sister would go a long and help. We still have photos of us dirty from working in the woods (as sensitive as we are to the sun, the photos shows us squinting to block out the sun). Grandpa also made trails through the forty acres of wood. One day, Grandpa was working by himself and came into the house confused on where he was at and was taken to the doctor’s office. Apparently, as he was pulling a log through the woods, the log push against a dead tree and it came down on grandpa giving him a concussion.

By this time in my life, I was starting to drive the tractor. I would drive the tractor to and from the woods and sometimes in the woods. This is where I learned on valuable lessen about driving. If I did not drive the tractor smooth, my grandfather moved me out of the seat. And, if thing got into complicated place in the woods, or I was having problems pulling a logs, I also got pushed out of the driver’s seat. So, since I wanted to drive, I learned fasten how to drive the tractor smooth and miss all of the pot holes, and I learned how to drive on rough terrain pulling objects. People that ride with me today always remark on how smooth of a driver that I am. When we started driving snowmobiles, everyone wanted to ride with me, since I alway gave them a smooth ride.

One day, dad was with one of his employees that was previously a logger in the northern woods and a dining hall manager asked about getting a load of fire wood for the fireplace in the dining hall and the Waltons were in the fire wood business. I do remember discussions on that delivery of the first load of firewood, but I was involved after that entry in the business. We were cutting the fire wood out of the woods. Not only can I remember working in the woods but I remember pulling the logs out to the landing. North and south on the west half of the woods is a drumlin. On the south end of the woods, dad would pull the large load logs up the drumlin to the landing with the front tires off of the ground. As a boy, on the tractor, I was unsure it the tractor would roll over on its back, But, by looking at the drumlin today, it was not likely to roll over on to its back, but it scared a boy.

While I was in Junior High, my grandfather sold the land to the state of Wisconsin. So, we had to find our sources to cut firewood. But, by the time that I was Junior in High School, I was delivering up to. 200 loads of firewood after school and on the weekends per year This was a great experience for me at a young age.

Since I have walked through the wood my whole live, it does not bother me to walk through there despite all of the memories. The state has maintained some of the trails that my grandfather opened up in the early 1960s. But I have a route now laied out so that I can get thirty minutes of the walking in at any time, although I would like to get more time in with my daily walks, but this will work on really cold days and/or I am short on time to get my exercise in for the day.