Generation III: Charlie, Tim and Bill Rappleye

Unlike his old man or his younger brother, Bill Rappleye requested that he have his ashes spread in the woods, not the water. It only makes sense.

While his five dynamic daughters may be water creatures during the long summer days up at the family compound in Maine, Bill—like his two brothers and two preceding Willard Rappleyes—is a man of the woods, emphasis on the word "man."

The Mountainy Pond Club is a bit anachronistic when it comes to gender; testosterone is a vital asset when it comes to felling trees, splitting hardwood, and filling the gaping woodsheds. The electricity-free Rappleye camp, aptly named Sawbuck, runs on wood, and plenty of it. If you're not burning the precisely-measured stove pieces in the archaic wood burning stove, you'll be eating uncooked food.

That's been the norm since 1930, when Dean Rappleye of Columbia, the original Willard Rappleye, began stacking freshly hewn stove-length pieces into orderly rows.

His bulging woodshed became the pride of the lake—the subject of a Henry Sargent oil painting—for most of the 20th century.

The legacy of those cords of oak, birch and beach may not have been haunting to the Dean's three grandchildren, but they were daunting. As society sped up, days off the grid chopping wood became a luxury, and the once proud woodshed hit hard times. Siblings Bill, Charlie and Tim spend more time raising families in the woods than they did replenishing their stockade. In recent years, supply has barely kept pace with annual demand.

The recently departed W.C. Rap III and his bro's were groomed to appreciate the gratification of a fully processed tree: combing it for fireplace logs, starter brush and vital stove pieces. Both Willard Cole Senior and Junior taught the three lads to safely master the heavy tools of the woods: the two-man saw; the maul axe, the wedge and the sledge. But after becoming grownups, the ratio of workdays to play days while up north on vacation listed towards the latter.

With the tragic passing of both Bill and Charles within barely two years of each other, there was genuine cause for concern. Bill's daughters are competent campers, but they don't swing an axe. Entering 2021, Camp Sawbuck needed an influx of eager woodsmen to keep the fires burning.

Enter Mike and Matt. They are a father-and-son team that has just entered the Rappleye clan. In Bill's final grand act (in a life that contained plenty), he gave away his oldest daughter Georgia to Michael Boyer.

Proud Papa with his "Pentagon"

Michael was fortunate enough to have shadowed Willard Rappleye III through a fortnight of woodsy chores this past summer at Sawbuck. He first lesson was how to start the fires, and the next was how to keep them burning with a full wood box. Check and check. These were lessons pulsing with unspoken urgency; it would prove to be Bill's final summer in Maine.

It turns out that Michael had a hidden agenda: he has an ten-year-old son from a previous marriage, a spirited lad  who coincidentally summers in Maine with him mom. Mike wants to partake in the patriarchal tradition of Mountainy Pond, where fathers teach their sons how to safely split up a tree, to master the art of the sawbuck.

Next wave: Mike 'n Matt

The new men in the Rappleye camp join 32-year-old Dexter, the 6'4" son of the late Charlie Rap, a rail splitter just like his old man. And don't forget the "Three T's," Tim and his two sons Tom and Ted. Together, they split enough hard wood last summer to keep pies baking for all of the 2021 season.

Ted and Tom with fruits of their labors

The primary passion of the recently departed Bill Rappleye was his beloved camp, ground zero for his daughters and extended family. This recent addition of Mike and Matt should help fuel Sawbuck for the next generation.

Glowing