Owwwwwww squared

Even more yard-cleaning work today.  Matt was over again, and he and L split more chunks from the hackberry trunk; the remaining piece is about four feet long by two and a half feet thick.  Matt says he enjoys working on this because it’s a project that helps somebody besides himself, and it’s a project where he can see actual progress happen.

While they were doing that, I went and got twenty pounds of charcoal, then built fires over the top of a hackberry root we’re having no luck dislodging, and inside the Evil Sycamore Stump That Will Not Die.  I’m devoutly hoping the fire in the sycamore will actually KILL the sumbitch, so it quits throwing up these suckers all over creation.  I never wished for a pair of bellows so much before in my life as when I was trying to convince the fire to blaze up.  I am getting to use up the jug of red kerosene on these fires, which is pleasing because I don’t have any need for red kero (it only gunks up the wicks of my Aladdin lamps), but I can’t justify throwing it out.  So far it’s made a very handy accelerant for the root and stump fires.

My hands are even more sore and swollen than they were yesterday, not to mention that I’ve raised several new blisters from using the grate shovel as a fan to force the draft on the sycamore fire, and my shoulders have this hot burn to ’em.  God knows how I’m going to manage holding M tomorrow, when we go to the pediatrician for her two-month checkup and shots.

Merce Cunningham travels to the Uruguayan toxic waste dump.  Fnord.