antlercarver
12-28-2011, 11:27 AM
About 1940 dad and grandfather were clearing land in early summer. All work was done by hand. First small brush like rose bush, hazelnut and small willow were cut with a brush scythe and piled.Then on small trees you backed up against them bending them back and chopped the roots which now were between your feet in front of you, to do this a grub hoe was used. A grub hoe has one side like a ax and the other side like a very heavy hoe, both were sharp. Bigger trees were taken down by digging around the roots then cutting the roots untill the tree could be pulled down with a team of horses. One day walking to the new field they saw a 2 year old black bear with his front end down in a hole where a big tree came out from, his hind feet were on level ground, he was digging at something. Granddad quietly got right up behind the bear and lifting his grub hoe intending to break its back. On the down swing the bear heard or saw a shadow move and jumped to the side and the heavy grub hoe swung through and into the ground where the bear was. It ran off, but man I think it took balls to even try it. These were men who did hard physical work all the time and worked with animals all the time,so must have known their own ability. I would never think of trying it.