Harvesting Eucalyptus on Taquile

As an Authority in charge of a dance group on Taquile for Carnaval (Marti Gras), Lino and his family will need lots of firewood for cooking. Our first full day on Taquile, January 19, we stoped by Lino and Valeria's house to pay our respects and the Maestro Chainsaw Master arrived ready to cut cut down a couple of big Eucalyptus trees just above the house.

After throwing a line up over a big branch and tying the end of the rope to a big rock, the Maestro cut the tree and everyone pulled on the rope so it would fall where they wanted.

Everyone pitched in, cutting and piling branches to dry, gathering even tiny twigs and seeds--all for firewood.

Here Lino is splitting a fresh log into burnable pieces using a chisel for a wedge with a heavy hammer. Sam split logs as well. Hard work and tough on the arm muscles.

A few straight lengths were milled with the chainsaw into lumber. I was impressed with the skill of the Maestro with the chainsaw.

The bark peeled easily and smoothly from the logs. The children, mainly Christian, Clever and Edith, used the circles of bark to play and make little houses around each other. This was Edith's turn to tuck into their play house. She is 9 now and an absolute delight.