Wednesday, April 6, 2011

conversations and trees

overheard conversation, and overhead tree

I haven't been posting much because I haven't been drawing much. I've been fixin' up my website ( www.gogomax49.com ), and starting on a website for my film, and getting the film ready to send out, and other write-y think-y things.

Today I'm headed to the other end of the island to do some mulching for an old farmer I worked for last summer. I miss getting out there and working hard, and I'm happy that he called with a job. I'm looking forward to working for him again this summer - shovelling in the rain, long bike rides across the island, tired but strong. It's amazing how regular exercise relieves stress. I never really realized that until last year.

Mulching involves pulling around a huge gas-powered nastybox, starting it up, and throwing in branches that have fallen off the trees over the winter. You get a fine organic mulch that you can mix in with your garden soil, or layer on top of the garden.

Mulching is loud and violent. This is the device Steve Buscemi used at the end of Fargo to dispose of the body - remember the leg sticking out? Sometimes a branch gets stuck inside and I have to turn it off and get my hand in among the mulching blades and pull it out. It makes me cringe.

I don't especially like gas-or electric-powered tools like that. I would way rather use a handsaw than a circular saw, and I would way rather use an axe than a chainsaw. Those power tools just feel like they're more than we need. It feels like I'm giving the gods a big "fuck you" whenever I start a chainsaw. That probably doesn't make sense to most people. Most guys love that power shit, but I prefer using my own body power to do stuff. It feels so good to hand-split huge rounds of wood and know you did it with your own hands. I fantasize about building a place in the bush one day, using only an axe, a hatchet, a saw a hammer, a mallet and and chisel.

Anyways, today it's Chainsaw and Mulcher, but it'll still be fun.

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