Bastards?

My stepfather used to have a big log hauled to the side of our driveway in the fall. In the winter he cut the log into firewood. When he sawed the log he used what he called "Bastards" to keep the log from closing in on the blade of the saw. As I remember the 'Bastards' were made of steel and looked somewhat like the blade of an axe. After he sawed a few inches down he pounded the blade into the open cut. As a young kid I used to be uncomfortable with the name 'Bastard' and thought it was a bad word. I'm not sure if the correct name was 'wedge' or if he used a common or local name for the tool. In any case we had plenty of wood for the cook stove and the heater in the small living room. I refer you to my book True Tales of Whitethorn, for the story of how he came to shoot the living room stove.

Copyright 2008 Sharon Porter Moxley

If you want to look at my blog in color rather than E-mail go to Http://lifewithloggers.blogspot.com/