by Al Herrin

In our house, we have a fireplace, a wood burning stove for heating, and a wood burning cookstove.  Over the years, I have cut most of the wood for these myself because I enjoy cutting wood.  We have an abundance of good oak wood in the Cherokee Nation, which I consider the best wood of all for heating and cooking.  Oak will produce almost as much heat as hickory and doesn't pop like hickory.

It is a joyful experience to be in the woods on a crisp fall or winter day, sawing a tree into lengths and then splitting them with an ax or maul.  The sound of the wood splitting, and the smell of the fresh-cut oak are the things memories are made from.

I am competent with a chain saw and fully appreciate it because I used to cut wood with a crosscut saw.  But I'm still not very good with an ax and that still bothers me, even though I have learned to live with it.

When I was a boy growing up in the Cherokee Nation, I admired the men in each community who were skilled with an ax.  Their every movement with an ax was a picture of easy efficiency, more like a master musician with an instrument than a man with an ax.  When cutting through a tree or log, every swing of the ax took out great chips of wood, and I was always surprised at how quickly the log was cut through.  It seemed like they could chop for hours without tiring or losing any proficiency.  When cutting a long stick up into shorter lengths, the stick was steadied over a larger stick or log with one foot, and the ax cuts were made dangerously close to the foot with complete confidence.

My own efforts with an ax were pitiful by comparison.  My father told me I chopped like lightening--I never hit the same place twice!  I did a few chores every evening for an elderly widow who lived down the road from our house.  She was over eighty years old and walked with a crutch, but she could chop wood better than I.

Once, I asked her how she learned to chop wood.  She chuckled and said that, the first Christmas after she was married, her husband gave her an ax and a mirror.  He told her she could either learn to chop wood or sit and watch herself freeze to death!

I was determined that I would learn to use an ax with skill.  Although I once stuck an ax in my knee, made gashes in several pairs of boots, almost killed my dog twice, and left scars on most of the trees on our place, I kept trying.  Then, the discovery of girls and later college interrupted my pursuit of axcellence (If you like puns, this word is for you; if not, pretend it is a typographical error.).  Years later, when I did get back to cutting wood, chain saws had made skill with an ax unnecessary.  So, I never did learn to use an ax well.

To be completely honest and fair, however, I can't blame my failure totally on girls and chain saws.  Lack of talent played a large part.  We recognize that talent is required to play a musical instrument well, but overlook the fact that talent is also required to use an ax well.  Each of us has things which we do easily which are difficult for others.  Let us do those things, and be happy.