That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for February 05, 2025

“Thanks for everything, Dad.”

/// When The Lumberjacks make their Return,

the youth looks at his père with concern.

They have bonfires to fix;

he totes dead leaves and sticks.

Should they not have chopped logs they can burn?

I’ve got an idea for a game where you try removing sticks from a pile.

Forget it Jinga, sounds like a waste of time.

/// This is Masterpiece three-four-five-six.

Are there patterns in pieces Steve picks?

Number two-three-four-five

was a French oil, (no jive),

of a guy, his back laden with sticks!

One of the original fascists.

“We really need to move closer to where the trees are.”

“Thanks for carrying thet thar load fer me, son. My dang back itches somethin’’ fierce! Say, now … ain’t those branches from … poison sumac?!”

Another great moment of phallic history in art.

It’s some new imported variety of chicken called Ostrich. All they said was “be sure to bring the big ax”.

Unfortunately his idea got the axe.

“I brought you all the way out here to discuss what you and my wife have been doing while I’ve been away….”

“Just a minute – what the hell are we doing?!!!??

We’ve got central heating!"

He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps, he likes to press wild flowers……

We’re all set for our camping trip. I’ve got the firewood, you’ve got the axe……wait, who was supposed to bring the tent?

…and that, son, is how you chop twigs. Next time we we’ll go bigger and do a few branches and maybe a little tree.

You really thing an axe that big is needed to gather up some sticks?

What the painting above depicts/

Is life as it’s lived in “the Sticks”:/

This lad’s bound to succeed-/

(It’s almost guaranteed!)/

His Dad’s taught him all the tricks !

Today is yard waste pickup. Just leave those things bundled next to the street.

No Dad! TWIGGY, the model. I want you to show me how to pick-up Twiggy.

No, no, the axe isn’t for helping you out; it’s for the Borden family.

You keep workin’ hard, Arf Arless, and someday you’ll make it from Larkrise to Candleford too.

Coming this summer on the History Channel, “40 whacks”.

He’s OK!

“Someday, son, this will all be yours…”

The red belts are hiking… the red belts are hiking!

The black belts are tough to find.

“The boss said he was givin’ me the axe…”

“Anyway, we’ve been hired to go to the capitol. Something about the agenda of the new administration.”

Today’s Richard’s Poor Almanac post is cute for art lovers. I recommend everyone check it out!

“I know she’s kind of creepy but that old lady who lives just outside of Burkittsville will pay top dollar for all these twigs!”

The return of the Lumberjacks: 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"Category:Undated paintings" Wikimedia 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, and Brave search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and choose the first Wikimedia Category: found, and once there find the text string Loubat, and click its link for info and links that point to more info (perhaps best viewed by the Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browsers, which can automatically translate most webpages if necessary) about this large painting. 

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #3456 (February 5, 2025) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment, and using the dropdown menu (even larger if you crop what’s after .png from the URL). I’ve added a comment there pointing to the info about this artist I used to point to here. So far, first work by him used here.

P.S. If anyone using the DuckDuckGo search engine couldn’t find what my comment directed others to yesterday, I’ve added a Reply to that saying what to currently search for instead.

it’ll wind up getting the axe

I’ve just invented a cologne for men – I wonder what I should call it.

That’s a pretty big axe for cutting twigs. What do they use for cutting trees?

Chopped was taken. We are calling it “Splits”.

not a tree in site, got twigs from ladies garden

“I know we didn’t need the ax to break up sticks like those. It’s just how I accessorize.”

“Yeah, this is how I scratch my back. It’s hard on my jackets, though.”

That’s one square metre of forest that won’t burn down…….