Chainsaw Man: The Story Behind the Scenes

Last week Andy was on vacation. We had a couple of trees that had died/ were dying that he had to cut down. I love trees and always hate to have to cut one down. Anyway, he left the stumps tall enough he could do some chainsaw carving in them. As we were talking last Thursday about what to carve the largest stump (he was thinking a bear, I was thinking a person), he looked up carvings of fishermen. He saw one that had on a hat like my dad, Jay Pell, use to wear. It reminded me of an old photo of my dad. I said, "What about carving it to look like Dad?" Andy's always up for a good challenge, but he had never done a chainsaw carving of a person. He was willing, but hesitant and then decided, "It's only wood. If it looks bad, then we'll have some extra firewood for the woodburner." I think he did a great job carving this white pine stump to resemble my dad. In the photo, Dad was holding a hoe and doesn't have his partial tooth in his mouth. His shirt isn't button correctly. The caption on the photo is "Available for Employment". Andy had a bit of a hard time with the mouth and decided to put a "bear stick"

in Dad's hand instead of a hoe. (Dad turned on his wood lathe bear sticks for several of the grandkids to "fight off bears".) Many of our Friday and Saturday guests watched Andy carve "Dad". A couple of guests asked if the owner had hired Andy to do a carving for her. Haha. One guest asked for his autograph which made his day! Not only can you see this woodcarving from the Bee-stro, but I can also see it from my "sittin' and thinkin' chair" in our bedroom. This woodcarving represents so much more than words can say. Andy and I started dating in high school. My mom had strict rules for dating. We could only talk on the phone 20 minutes a day, see each other 3 times a week, but if he went to church with us on Sunday, then that was a "free" fourth time of the week we could be together. Many of our dates consisted of Andy eating dinner with us and then going out to the woodshop with my dad to make something. We joke that Andy dated Dad more than he dated me! My dad taught Andy a lot about building furniture, finishing out trim, and building a house. Dad worked along side Andy and taught him as we remodeled our first two homes. When we built our current house, Dad's health wasn't as good so he didn't do as much hands on, but he helped by giving us lots of advice (some needed and some not! haha). The Bee-stro building is the first major build project Dad didn't help Andy on because he passed away right after the foundation was poured. However, his skill is still found in the Bee-stro through the talent he taught Andy. Dad would have never have attempted chainsaw carving, but he sure would have been proud of Andy's skill in this method of working with wood. Andy quoted Dad when he finished the carving by saying Dad's popular quotes when working on projects for us, "It looks good enough from 59 (SR59)", and "It's good enough for who it's for."