Pitch Extractor, Scientist, and Geometry Specialist

Extracting pitch from a Black Spruce Tree

Blowing through the straw to deposit the pitch into an old paint bottle...

Look at all this pitch, Mom!  It's gonna come in handy!

Think this wood wasp would like a taste?

Anyone with a hand this steady has the potential to be a great Doctor!

Moving the dog house he designed and built for his hound.

How do you move a triangle anyway?

Happy boy, happy hound, job well done!

Today, while weed eating, trimming away brush and cutting down small trees, my son noticed some pitch leaking from the bark of a Black Spruce Tree.  He asked if he could harvest some and I said, sure, after your work is done!  He finished in a hurry and found an old paint bottle for collection as well as a straw and some other drill like tool that I don't know the name of.  I'm having to ask my children the names of things now and how to do things, quite a difference from days gone by.  This same son downloaded my first blog pictures because I couldn't remember how to get them off the camera and filed away but he did!

While snapping pictures of the pitch extractor at work, suddenly a huge, gigantic wood wasp flew by and landed on one of our wooden electrical spools.  (They make great tables, dangerous toys and some huge teeter totters.)  So off we went to investigate...

I couldn't believe he had the nerve to get so close to it with just a Leatherman's tool!  I had the camera, and that was plenty close for me.  He wants to be a Doctor some day.  I keep telling him that it's a lot of studying and hard work, but he assures me he can do it.  I believe he can.  We encourage him in his dreams and hopes.  We find great books and videos and he practically knows Psalm 139 by heart.  After watching him handle that wood bee today and fetching his tweezers for him when he asked, I can envision him Doctoring already.  He wasn't even sweating a drop, not even when it buzzed around like a tornado with one wing pinned down trying to sting him with his back end.  He gave it a taste of pitch and then decided he'd let it go.  I asked him if he wanted a jar but he said no, he wanted it to have his freedom.  He politely said he'd already seen another one and I'm realizing the little boy wonder of bugs is passing away... his dreams and hopes are building within him and we will be there encouraging him every step of the way.