Young loggers learn the art of lumberjacking

Seven-year-old Alex Mirandy usually isn't too keen on hanging out with his 11-year-old sister Molly.

But Friday afternoon, as he balanced on one end of a 600-pound western cedar log floating in 10,000 gallons of cold water, he was happy to have her across from him.

"I watched her try (the log roll) by herself and her feet were slow," he said. "I knew if they let two people on the log, I could take her down. And I did."

The Lisle siblings were two of several dozen children participating in the All-American Lumberjack Show sports camp for kids at the annual Eyes to the Skies Festival at Lisle's Community Park.

For 45 minutes and with a signed waiver from an adult, children practiced their logrolling technique and worked across from a real lumberjack to make crosscuts in large logs with a hand saw.

Tyler Lindahl, 8, of Elmwood Park had a tough time using the saw and said he could never have been a lumberjack working 12-hour days.

"I can walk on the log but the cutting is very hard," he said.

The camp will be offered at 2 p.m. through Sunday. And lumberjacks Jesse Anderson and Nate Greenberg are competing in more difficult competitions like the ax throw, hot saw, boom run and log roll at the noon, 4 and 6 p.m. shows each day.

"This is my fifth year in the competition and it's a fun way to carry on my family's logging tradition," said Anderson, who's great-uncle, Joe Fischer, manages the All-American Lumberjack Show.

"It all looks like fun and games and out here it is, but everything we do is related to some type of logging need," Fischer told visitors. "This was, and still is to some extent, a way of life for people growing up in sawmill towns like (Stillwater, Minn., where the company is based).

Eyes to the Skies continues from noon to 11 p.m. through Sunday in Lisle Community Park, Route 53 and Short Street, with daily balloon launches at 5:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. and nightly fireworks at 9:45 p.m.