Bent Raising, Pine Boughs, Aprpreciating Life

After a sweet morning helping my good friend/adopted Dad, Herb, get in some firewood I made my way to the second "work day" of the day.  The bent raising.  Ben showed up first on his bike and quite willing to work, not stand around and wait for the others to show up, so we got a lot of the first bent in place and on its way up when Tom showed up just in time to push the switch on the winch.  Also in Tom's helpful contributions to the workday were really slowing me down and double, triple checking for square(6-8-10 triangles) and making sure everything was right.  Thanks Tom!  Martin and Gred showed up, followed by a little joking by Todd about how this was just like a government job.  Five guys standing around talking(them) and one guy working(me welding).  So finally Ben, I think, did something about that and led them all in getting the next bent setup.  Before I knew it, it was vertical and getting clamped to the wooden squares I had built.  AWESOME!!!

Ben helped get the first connecting beam/header in place while Tom did a wonderful job assisting with the electronic winch again.  And BIG thanks to Martin for hanging around to help me get the second and highest beam in place!

Now, the pine bough!

Just enough daylight to catch this wonderful moment with the camera.  The tradition of hanging a bough or branch has been around for centuries.  I've read that it's meant to signify an appreciation for the safety of the job-site until now.  The workers have gone to the highest (well almost, technically the roofing will be just that much higher) structural element of the building and everyone is all in one piece, a good way to be indeed.  It is also a symbol of hope that that safety will be maintained through the rest of the project.

While honoring those things were very important to me I was also very moved on this day to think of  LIFE.  In the morning while sawing up and splitting dead, standing red oak into firewood that would keep us warm and give us life, my paternal grandmother, Mommie Mattie, was being laid to rest in the Earth.

I took some time away from the machines and walked into the woods far away to lay down, sing some sweet songs, and connect with my Albany, GA family many miles away as best I could and appreciate the life, light, and love my grandmother has helped to make possible for me.  She really taught me the AWE-SOMENESS of home cookin'.  Everytime I got to her house down south she would be dabbling the sweat off her forehead with a paper towel, hot from standing over the stove stirring the collard greens, mixing and baking the cornbread, and frying fish and chicken saying, "Come here and gimme some shugaah honey.  I love you.  Want a snack, soda?".  Nothin' better!

As I stood before a small, scrubby pine that had already had some human mutilation performed on it, I thanked it too for it's life, for being a pioneer species to protect the Earth where humans have done their damage, and give back to the Earth for all the beings of creation.  The pine bough symbolizes that hope in this project and life for me.  That I too may be a sort of pioneer, unlike the "original" pioneers of America (uggghhh, but thanks I guess, that is after all why I am here too), where the Earth and its beings have been damaged, bringing love, light, and nourishment to myself and others in need.

Thanks to this wonderful community and all the wonderful Friends and Family that are becoming more and more a very important part of my life.