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During those four years we harvested 32 loads of hay and it benefited our fields greatly. However, once I was done digging marl I no longer had any more use for the horse, which by this time was very old. 

It so happened that there was a butcher in town who had a sick horse that he wanted me to take a look at, I was a veterinarian after all. I saw immediately that the horse wouldn't make it much longer so I offered him my horse in trade. So we traded and I received an additional 5 thaler which is what I thought both horses were worth combined. So I was allowed to take my new horse home with me and the butcher came along to get his horse. However, the next day my horse lay dead in the barn, and Skytter the miller ended up getting fat for his dogs. So I went ahead and gave Hans Petersen his wagon back. Furthermore, I also split any monies, groceries and whatever else we had left between myself, Hans Jørgen and Hans Petersen after which we went our separate ways.

I was once again looking for a business opportunity and once again I had Hans Petersen advising me and this time it went much better than the last time we were partners. He said; "You who are good with your hands, you should pick up a trade. Then you'll be asked to sit next to our father at the end of the table and receive two glasses of schnapps. Unlike the thresher who only gets one." After this time I took on many sorts of different jobs.

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I accepted a job where I had to clear trees trees in a local forest and saw them into boards as well as other sorts of building lumber. Turning wood into lumber and chopping firewood in the forest. It was cut into pieces that were two feet long and stacked in piles that were six feet long and six feet high 

- so 72 cubic feet to one fathom. We cut clearings in the forest by cutting the crawling underbrush in places where it had taken over and placed it into big heaps, the equivalent of one wagon load in each pile. When we were done clearing and thinning out an area we proceeded to cut the larger trees into rafters and the likes. Those trees we simply let fall where ever, as long as they didn't fall and damage the nice ones that we were trying to leave standing. So next to every 5,6,7 trees, which we called a load, we'd place a wedge/stick and we'd refer to it as a split number. Among the logs was a beech that the forest ranger had gauged would yield 18 loads of wood, with another 15 loads from the rest of the branches. There were oak treet that were 6-7 feet across. They were rarely very tall and it was even rarer that you'd get a piece of oak more than 20 feet long, but it didn't matter because oak timber was extremely durable. 

I would dig up marl but it was very hard work. I would dig drainage ditches which was almost worse, but back then people knew little about