Rus the Lumberjack at 36

Rus had a birthday last week, and lucky for him, it fell on his Friday off. Even luckier, my mom and dad volunteered to keep Marianne overnight Thursday night so that Rus and I could enjoy Friday together while the big kids were at school. 

Earlier that week my neighbor hired a guy to come cut down her huge ponderosa pine tree because it was dying. He came and asked me if I'd like the wood for fire wood, I said yes, and hours later there was a ponderosa pine tree in my side yard...It was cut into smaller bits and thankfully he restrained himself from giving me the needles and tiny branches, but still! It was a huge pile o'wood! I was dismayed at the thought of cutting it into appropriate sized logs for fire wood, but Rus seemed energized by the opportunity to try out a chainsaw a friend had given him. 

So on his birthday I left to teach an art class at the school and he busted out his chainsaw (with newly sharpened blade), and went to work reducing the daunting pile of wood into manageable bits. When I came home an hour and a half later he had made a significant dent in the load...I was amazed at my man's lumberjack skills. If you need an earful, just call Rus and ask him how his little chainsaw worked cutting up those logs...he was happily surprised by how well it worked.

We went to lunch and then to buy his birthday gift (thank you tax returns!): an air powered pellet rifle. It's a 22 caliber and Rus can shoot it in the backyard and the pellets are easily attainable and dirt cheap (compared to regular ammo). (Can you hear Rus's reasoning for needing it coming out here?)

Rus seemed eager to prove that his 36-year-old body could do a 20-year-old amount of work and so he continued working in the yard that afternoon. We purchased some split rail fencing for the rear part of our yard, so while I stacked firewood, he put up the fence.

That night we had dinner with my parents (who bought him a wheelbarrow, can you see the yard work theme we have going on?), and the boys enjoyed shooting the bb gun and pellet gun.

It was a great day. Rus worked super hard and got super spoiled. I'm so grateful for him and his ability to do hard work, to be able to fix anything, and to rock a pair of work-worn carharts.

Here he is sighting in his scope on his pellet gun.

 Oh how Jacob loves his BB gun!! And he's not too bad of a shot!

 Grandpa was Jacob's spotter here...

 Here is the fencing Rus put up. If your'e confused by this view it's because there used to be a hill here...we leveled it a few weeks ago.

 A tribute to Grams here: A bearded iris blossom from the irises she planted years ago.

 So I think we're set for firewood...

The end.