Behind the Lines: by David Heiller

David Heiller Spring has a way of uncovering lost treasures although sometimes you have to help her. Take my folding saw, for instance. Cindy bought it for me last Christmas. I had wanted one for a long time. I could use it to prune trees and to cut firewood on camping trips. A folding saw would be real handy, I figured. I talked about the need for a folding saw for a couple years. Cindy finally got tired of that, so she bought me one. It was my favorite gift. One of the functions of a spouse is to buy things like folding saws. That should be a marriage vow. PASTOR: Do you promise to love, honor, and buy handy things for your husband? BRIDE: I do! I started using the folding saw right away, to cut branches and small trees on our snowshoe trails in the woods. It worked great. The teeth were razor sharp. But it was a bit awkward to carry. I tried putting it in my pocket, but it was too big for that, so I put it in my fanny pack. Then one day in the woods, in the middl...

David Heiller  The widow maker stood in our woods last Thursday morning, calmly waiting for a man to come its way. Deane circled it cautiously; chainsaw in hand, the way a cowboy might circle a raging black stallion. He eyed the basswood t ree, which had snapped in a strong west wind about eight feet above the ground. Its top rested on four other basswoods, and a large birch, all of which were bent from the extra weight. What I saw was a lot of fi rewood, dry on the stump, waiting for my woodstove. What Deane saw was a spring loaded, three-ton wooden widow maker. Finally he turned to me with a grin. “I’m not cutting that down,” he said. “Mother nature will take care of it for you.” I was surprised, for perhaps two seconds. Deane Hillbrand handles a chainsaw better than anyone I’ve ever seen. He builds log and timber frame homes for a living. Trees fall where he wants them to . Deane and Kathryn Hillbrand But part of a person’s skill with a tool includes knowing w...

David Heiller The two dogs and I headed into the woods on Sunday afternoon. It was something I had wanted to do for several weeks, but work had kept it on the back burner. There’s something very inviting about woods this time of year. The ground is hard, so there’s no mud. There’s a little snow for contrast, but not too much to make walking difficult, and you can see everything. The view from our deck as well as all of the east facing windows. The river is down there, but also  our woods,  and what we refer to as Heiller Valley. It is now owned by the State of Minnesota. Our woods are even more of a magnet to me because I really don’t know them yet. I’ve walked over the hills a time or two, but it takes a while to get to know a piece of land, years really. I scurried down the hill, eased over a barbed wire fence, and entered the woodlot. My new Allis Chalmers WD tractor was in the back of my mind. “Could it handle this trail without tipping,” I asked myself a...

David Heiller We’ve had a lot of wet weather lately, which has me worried about our Firewood Supply. Firewood Supply is capitalized because it is a serious subject when you heat with wood. Most people have their Firewood Supply under control at this point in the year. In fact the true old timer is working on his Firewood Supply for next year, or even 1997, right about now. Maybe someday I’ll be at that point. But things always seem to get in the way, like football games and gardening and an emergency or two. "Argg"! So I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll get a cold snap and the rain will cease and the ground will harden and everything will work out fine, like it always does. In preparation for those perfect conditions, I spent part of Saturday and Sunday in the woods wearing knee-high rubber boots, cutting and splitting several cords of basswood, maple, and red oak. Two companions helped the time go faster. On Saturday I worked with the company of our Austra...