The Log Splitter
I have a great admiration for the everyday valor of working men. They just get on with difficult and painful jobs year after year. So many of them take pride in even the most mundane of jobs and they invest them with dignity. If I have heroes it is these people.
The Log Splitter belongs to the following groups:
All Things Poetic, Artistic, PhilosophicalIt is hard work splitting logs. Many workers still use a special axe and a good eye. But increasingly hydraulic splitters are used. Even so each log weighs upwards of 20 kilos and after you split a few thousand of those in a day you notice it.
This job was large. The land had been cleared over the previous few days by what they call a “tractorvator” – a sort of fancy bulldozer. Before him now were piles of long logs. They would need to be chain-sawed into lengths a couple of feet long and then split.
The strange thing was he brought his wife. He had only been paid the standard rate – $25 an hour for him and the hydraulic splitter and in this part of the world the men work on jobs alone or with a mate. Wives are certainly useful but you don’t take them on jobs. Not to matter there was no extra charge for her.
In the morning they worked together. He used the chainsaw with that fine precision of years of experience. He would carefully brush the dirt off the logs where he needed to cut to preserve the blade. When a chain was blunt he would swap it out rather than waste the boss’s time sharpening them on the job. The wife and he would lift the log and then he would pull the lever to split it. They could have used the hydraulic lift but it was slower and he was being paid by the hour.
You could see him grimace every now and again as he worked. In the afternoons he worked alone. She probably had to pick up the kids. He worked much slower then. He was often tentative and used the hydraulic lift to raise the logs more often. At 50 years old he shouldn’t really be passed it. He looked wiry and strong – brown as a nut from years in the sun.
On the third day the boss brought him a coffee for his lunch. He remarked, offhand, about his wife working with him. The splitter said she was giving him a hand as he was a bit slow at the moment. He had only got out of hospital two weeks previously having had a cancerous testicle removed. The work was “niggling” at him a little.
He drank his coffee and got back to work.
Del Millar
This is a fabulous piece, a joy to read.
Ah, the masculinity of man – never better expressed than in this piece !
Ah the stoical man !
His mate on hand, the good wife,
their unity, their team, good hearts these days can be hard to find.
Their is much heart in this beautiful piece.