"It's better to have loved and lost than to have to do 40 pounds of laundry a week." - Laurence J. Peters

I'm not sure how this kind of thing happens, but I'm pretty sure what happened to 

the employee responsible. 

We went to church this morning. I normally close my eyes when the preacher (or the leader) prays, but figured today that was too big a risk if I was sitting down. It's a credit to Brett's homiletical skills that I stayed awake through his sermon.
This last week was "move in" week at UofO, so a whole batch of college students were back in church.
There should be a word for a collection of college students, like gaggle of geese, or murder of crows. We're taking suggestions.)
He's preaching through Acts and did the first part of chapter 17 this morning, Paul's visit to Thessalonica and Berea. It's SO nice to get a sermon that is biblical, has some real content, and a meaningful, thought provoking application.
And we made contact with the leader of a small group we will visit.

I came home and went to work with the chain saw. I'm cutting down several of the stumps so they're just above ground level. Then Todd will come with his Bobcat and an implement that looks like something out of Mad Max. It's a metal cone about 4' tall with teeth around it. When I saw it at his place I wondered what it was. Turns out it's a drill bit of sorts. Todd said that if the stumps are cut down he can mount it to his Bobcat, drill into the stump with that thing, and split it open down to the roots. That will allow rain to enter it, which will greatly accelerate the rotting process. As in, all but gone in a couple of years, instead of a dozen.
It occurred to me this afternoon as I was cutting the tops off the stumps that the oral surgeon used a very small version of the same tool to break open my impacted wisdom tooth years ago. And if the stump makes the same sound my tooth did when it broke apart I may pass out.

Todd brought the splitter back at dinnertime, so tomorrow I'll be out there at first light working on that last, very large pile. What I don't finish by 4 p.m. will have to be done by hand with my maul because I need to have the splitter back before they close at 5:00. I could take it back Tuesday morning but the church has a ladies' Bible study Pam wants to go to at 9 a.m. Tuesdays. So I'll concentrate on the big rounds and maybe get through the whole pile.

I also want to get the goat shelter roof on before next weekend when it's supposed to rain a lot. I'd like the dry ground that will be the floor to stay dry to reduce the chance of organisms that might otherwise become a health problem for the goats. For at least the first few weeks they'll be confined to Casa de Cabras, which means the milk that goes in will come out as goat pee.

What with yesterday's splitting marathon, keeping my eyes open at church this morning, and working with a chainsaw all afternoon I'm failing fast. And tomorrow promises to be a doozy, too. So I'll say g'night now, eat my fist full of cookies, and call it a day.