Wow what a week! We had some emergency maneuvers to undergo, and it fell to me as the community leader... well, at least as the guy with the chainsaw.
I was working hard this week to get some things done on the farm, as my wife is in Bogota in intensive study for her masters degree. I was cleaning out our warehouse, garage, kitchen and other various storage spaces with some workers, when I got the call - our road is blocked; chainsaw man is needed.
So I went down alone with the chainsaw to take a look. But this was more complicated than I anticipated.
I made some superficial cuts, but in the end I called on a neighbor to come and help me think this problem through. We realized that if we just chop the tree, the trunk would likely tear a lot of soil down with it into the road, continuing to block our path and maybe even making the problem worse.
So we made a plan and the next day I took two workers with me to help build out something to 'stick' this block of soil to the wall.
We got that built with local material, luckily we had just spent monday and tuesday cleaning out and harvesting our bamboo grove as the new moon is the right time for this operation.
Now the only thing to do was make a few cuts and hope it works.
We wedged a support under the middle, to avoid any possible lever action from the heavy trunk, and I made the first two cuts - the plan was working perfectly!
By this time we had gathered quite a few neighbors to watch us work. Now that there was nothing left to do but watch, hope and cheer. 😅
After a break to rest my weakening arms, I made two more cuts, and it all fell out like a thing of beauty.
We had a bit of clean up to do, but it was 'all down hill from there', pun intended as usual. After 6 days I was able to drive the car out, after that I went home, took a shower and fell asleep shortly before 8 pm. Well deserved rest if I am allowed to opine!
Living on the 'cutting edge' can sometimes be a lot of work. Of course its luxurious to be able to hope that the government will solve all our problems, but it leads to a degenerate 'complainer culture' that isn't willing or perhaps able to fix anything themselves.
There is a freedom in taking and accepting responsibility, and when it goes well, boy do I sleep well at night.