In Hayward, Wis., we watched men and women chop and saw through logs, climb poles and dump each other in a murky pond in a log rolling competition. A girl named Shana Martin rolled me into the water about a half dozen times. We put this in the story to allow for "reporter participation" because there was no chance I was going to be allowed to use the hot saw. The best of the best make three cuts through a giant log in about six seconds. That's roughly twice the time it would have taken me to saw my leg off. Safety first, I stayed away from the hot saw and watched in awe.

I do make my own kindling at home. I chop down logs into smaller pieces to start fires. I feel like a man when I do that. I also take out the garbage. That's about it as far as real man stuff. Full blog »