Sawing Logs

The summer before my senior year of high school, I was tasked with gathering up wood, cutting it and chopping it into fire ready segments. Winters were long in Anchor Point, Alaska and so the task was not insignificant. The wood stove in our little home was our only source of heat. The previous winter I had spent much time chopping wood almost on a daily basis so that Mom and my younger siblings would be warm during the days while Dad, my sister and I were away at school and work. I really wanted to get a good jump on the wood so it would all be chopped and ready for the entire winter.

The good news for me was that we lived in the forest and I didn't have to meander to far from our little home to find some good dead trees to use. About a half a mile from home my Dad and I found a couple of nice big trees that were ready to be cut down. We cut them down and then my Dad left me to do my thing.

Lucky for me one of my best friends, Nelson Swett, decided to come out and help me. I'm thinking we must have had something planned later that evening that would require my presence so he came to help me finish quicker. :)

So we began to work as hard and as efficiently as possible. We took turns with one of us running the chain saw and cutting the branches off or cutting the lodge pole into nice logs, and the other stacking the logs up onto the trailer. It was going to be a very long day.

After we loaded up the trailer we hauled it over to the house and unloaded it at our wood chopping area. We grabbed a quick sandwich and a drink and then headed back to the fallen trees for round two. It was my turn to stack the trailer and I had it about 1/4 full. Nelson was going to town with the chainsaw and we were making great time. Nelson calmly called out to me, "Horace, I need you to go get your Dad, I cut my leg.".

I didn't hear him very well so I asked, "What?"

He turned off  the chainsaw and repeated very nonchalantly "I need you to go get your Dad."

"Why?" I asked.

"I cut my leg."

"Whatever dude!" I mocked and began to load up the trailer again.

"Horace, I'm serious" and after saying this, he walked around from behind the tree he had been cutting up and lifted up his knee so I could see. What I saw made me almost lose my sandwich. When Nelson bent his knee I could see the muscle tissue and the bone and the joint and......not cool!

I panicked. I ran all the way to our house hollering the entire way for my Dad. When I got to our driveway entrance Dad opened up the door and asked what was wrong.

"I need you to come quick!" I exclaimed while trying to breathe. "Nelson cut his leg really bad!"

"OK, calm down. I'm coming" my Dad replied.

I couldn't figure out why my Dad was so calm and moving so slow. "Hurry up, it's really bad!"

But he continued to move with the same urgency. The same urgency that Nelson had shown when telling me he had cut his leg! Was I the only one that saw this as an emergency?!

Dad got some medical supplies, then started up the big Dodge 15-seat van and I jumped in. We drove down to find Nelson casually waiting for us. Dad looked at it and said, "It's pretty bad, we need to get you to the hospital."

Finally, someone was sharing in my view of the situation. We helped Nelson into the van and we drove down the road towards town. We were approximately 22 miles from Homer, which is where the hospital was located. About 10 miles into the drive we stopped and met up with Jamie Ballentine who was a good friend of ours and was also one of our Seminary teachers. Jamie and my Dad administered to Nelson, saying a prayer and giving him a blessing. They prayed that God would help Nelson and that his leg would heal well.

We left Jamie and drove the rest of the way to the hospital. They took Nelson back and we waited. After a few hours we received word that Nelson was resting well and that they had sewn him up. The doctors told us that it was a miracle that he didn't cause more damage. I didn't really understand that because in my mind the only way it would have been worse is if Nelson had amputated his leg with the chainsaw. The doctor said that the cut was "perfect". Strange use of words for a doctor to describe a nasty cut. He said that the chainsaw had cut in a way that it didn't sever anything and it was in a way that kept the bleeding to an absolute minimum. Nelson would be fine and after some time and therapy should be able to resume a normal life on his leg.

What a relief. I was so happy that it was not more serious. Today, Nelson still has a little hitch in his giddy-up but not much. Nelson really must have enjoyed the experience and he learned a lot from how to cut meat properly. So much so that he went to culinary school and became an accomplished chef! I'm pretty sure he is more of a knife user now. The chainsaw is a little too loud for most restaurants! :)