There was a flood in Manitoba that started in the spring of 2011 and, in parts of Manitoba, lasted all summer long and well into the winter. The floods were caused by huge amounts of snow and rain and were the worst around some lakes where the water levels were already unusually high. Hundreds of homes and cottages were affected by the wind and resulting waves and thousands of people were required to move out. Some people are still living in hotels and rented apartments waiting to go home. Some will not be allowed to go back and rebuild.

I got a phone call one day from a brother. He said, "CJOB radio is interviewing Lena."

Lena is my cousin, and she was born on the ship as her family (mom, dad, aunt and little brother) were emigrating to Canada in the 1920's. When I tuned in the radio she was just relating the story to Richard Cloutier (of CJOB) about her origins.

Well, when her mom and dad (my uncle and aunt) homesteaded in Canada, they settled on the south shores of Lake Dauphin, about 6 miles west of where I would eventually be born (see my history from the first page of this site). Now in her 80's, Lena still lives in the same yard, and where she still enjoys fishing and gardening and visiting. It is a beautiful site, but a bit out of the way.

Lena is a widow, and the flooding literally cut off every access out of her place. There is no road west, she explained to CJOB, the road east through the swamp was completely cut off, the lake was north and the only road out was south. For a half mile it was covered with 3 feet of water. For a while, her cousin (my brother) would come and get her out with his ATV when she needed to go out, and then someone was generous enough to lend her a small boat and motor so she could go to her southern neighbor where she had her car parked. This was working pretty well. The spry and determined 80+ woman would go out, get into the boat, start the motor and away she'd go.

Then, one day someone stole the boat. She and her friend found it a day later a few miles away, the motor gone and the boat shot full of holes. However, due to the foam in the hull the boat refused to sink and the thieves just left it in the swamp.

She sounded so disgusted in her interview - "Who would do that to an old lady like me?" It definitely was a miserable and cowardly thing to do to her, but her friends and neighbors helped her get out a little while longer until the flood water receded.

Now - the tree. My uncle planted a long row of Manitoba maple trees on the property back in the 1920's, and they are now beautiful, huge trees. All the water had loosened the soil, though, and one of them with a giant branch hanging off the side, simply toppled over. When I heard about the tree I was immediately interested in acquiring some of it, and called Lena to see if I could.

The story of the harvest follows in pictorial form below.

This is Lena in her house. I thought I should put this photo in here because it quite clearly illustrates that here is a woman that knows her own mind and will tolerate no nonsense. I think what bothered her most about the theft of her boat is that anyone would dare to dry to take advantage of her. In many ways, Lena exemplifies the courage and spirit of so many of the people that homesteaded in Canada in the early 20th century. Like Lena's parents, they sought to escape the turmoil that was tearing apart much of Europe and to seek a better life for themselves. My own parents were part of the influx of hard working, honest and earnest people that settled in the part of Manitoba where this photo was taken.

When I arrived in Lena's yard, this is what I saw. The magnificent old tree stood proud for more than 80 years, like the ones you can see in the background. In many ways the trees were like my uncle that had planted them and his daughter - tall, proud and tough as nails. As a young man well over 6 feet tall, my uncle had been a bodyguard for Kaiser Wilhelm. The rest of the tree had already been cut up and was lying off to the side, and the trunk that was left was about 14" long. The stump still attached to the ground was a crotch in the tree and measured about 28" wide by 48" long. Cutting this up was going to be a big job.

		I had been to the yard earlier with my chain saw and due to some problems with the saw had only been able to get a couple of small pieces from the trunk. With the saw repaired I came back and decided to start with the large piece. In the top photo I had been able to saw all the way down on the left side of the trunk and was almost ready to go to the other side. The bar on the chain saw was 20" so I needed to saw from both sides. The second photo was taken at just about the time when the saw chain began to skate and refuse to cut. I knew instantly that I had hit something deep inside the tree. I suspected that someone had driven a nail into the tree at some point and that was the culprit. Fortunately, I had a second saw with me and was able to avoid the obstacle enough to get the top half of the crotch cut away and could use crowbars to lever the upper piece away. The bottom photo shows what I found that cost me 20 dollars to get the saw professionally re-sharpened. The rock was about the size of a large potato and was right in the center of the crotch of the tree. It had been placed in the crotch of the tree at least 50 years ago and the tree had simply grown around the rock. I began to wonder if I might have put the rock there when I was a little boy, because I played in that yard often. It was more likely put there to get it out of the way of the lawn mower, but either way, it had been there a long time, and once again it could see the light of day.

		This shot shows the large upper part of the crotch after it had been separated from the stump, along with piece from the trunk that I had split earlier. The wood needed to be split and cut into smaller pieces on site because they were way to heavy to handle otherwise. The split pieces weighed over 100 pounds by themselves. The lower photo shows the large piece after it was trimmed and split. At this point I had no idea what I was going to make from the pieces. Often I will look at a piece of wood and try to plan how to cut it up to fit the various pieces I see inside of it. There was just too much wood here to do that. I just wanted to get it home.

Kira had to help. We had a great time watching the little 5 pound Pomeranian romp about the huge yard unrestricted. Of course, she promptly found some burrs to play with. There was so much that was interesting in the yard, but she kept wanting to watch the process of the tree harvest, so I gave her a stump to sit on.