Day 2 – Amigo Centre

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

We had a very nice continental breakfast at 8 am in the dining hall with Cheryl’s uncle and aunt. After breakfast several local people showed up from different locations in Michigan to help for a day or two and we took a group photo before going to our job sites.

There were four groups that were given the task of cutting, piling and burning wood from the fallen trees.

Wieland spent the day working with Bob, a part-time maintenance man at Amigo Centre, installing the wiring, conduit and a panel for the camp’s electrical generator.

I was partnered with Lynn Newcomer, Cheryl’s uncle from Salina Kansas. We cut and cleared the fallen trees, piled them on the smouldering ashes of a fire and then poured some ” magic dust ” ( oil soaked wood chips ) and diesel fuel on the pile to get the fire burning again. I cut some of the trees into smaller sections and Lynn moved them onto the fire and also used the saw attachment on his skid steer to cut the wood on the pile.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t tightened the gas cap on the chainsaw after refilling it and as I started using it again, the cap came off and gas poured all over my pants, so I had to avoid getting close to the fire. The smell wasn’t noticeable until later on when I went inside for lunch.

After the pile was burning well, we moved to the meadow area where most of the trees in the area had been knocked down by the straight-line winds. Cheryl helped us start the fire by using some dried sassafras branches for kindling. Most of the wood was a bit wet and when we piled more branches and wet leaves on the fire it would start to smoulder and the fire would die down so we had to reignite it a few times.

There were a lot of very large cherry trees that had fallen down and we cut them to length and piled them separately so that they could later be brought to a sawmill to make lumber.

The meadow was at the far end of the camp trails and I opted to catch a ride back to the dining hall for lunch.

After lunch, we continued cutting, piling and burning wood. There seemed to be no end to the amount of fallen trees and many of the trails were blocked by them.

At 4 pm, we headed back to the camp and Lynn pushed the logs together on the fire we had made in the morning and it flared up to make an impressive bonfire.

After taking a nice shower, we had supper, discussed the events of the day and solved political and social issues before heading back to our rooms for the night.