First sounds

The cook brought a machete today. I sharpened it a bit and then went out to the deck behind the building, positioned the machete on the piece of wood and, using another piece of wood as a hammer of sorts, started to work the machete into the wood.  It was surprisingly tough but the machete blade slowly worked down along the wood grain.  It was amazing how the wood crackled - if I stopped for a moment, I could hear the wood grains pulling apart, sounding a bit like a bowl of Rice Krispies soaking in milk...
Finally, the machete got down to the last threads of grain and I pulled the pieces apart.
I set the two pieces aslide, thinking that I'd work on them a bit the next morning -  but in the evening I just needed to hear what they sounded like.  So I tried.