We were all up by five this morning ready to get out there and raise what must be a full ton of lumber into the tree before things spiraled out of control. First,Henry decided to go to his office for a while (to add insult to injury he wore a tie) and then Bernard called to say that he was hours late in returning from his visit to see his father. This all would have been fine except that  left me and my oldest son in the woods with me up in the tree attempting to teach Chaz how to throw tools with to a man precariously balanced on a limb twenty feet above the ground. After at least a dozen tries to get me a long piece of rope we simply decided to burn the tangled mess before Henry (or even worse, Lorna) came home. The rope was nylon and the entire farm smelled of melted plastic for hours.

-Nick