Axe Throwing Lessons During a Pandemic?? Who Knew?!

Written by
Alissa
World Champion LumberJill
​Founder & Owner of the Axe Women Loggers of Maine

​Axe throwing lessons during a pandemic?? Who knew?!
When our 2020 touring schedule suddenly went from 20 events to 4, we knew we were in for a hugely different year!
We were so thankful that we still had shows and events on our calendar... unfortunately, we saw too many of our friends be nearly unemployed for most of 2020. 
We fit in a few events in the spring right before things started to close down. Then we were lucky enough to still get to go to Iowa in August and then Nebraska in October!! 
We all love performing for crowds! We can all still chop logs and throw axes in our own backyards! Those of us who live near the water can still log roll. But...

...the one thing we all knew we would miss the most this year was going to be giving lessons! Over the years the AxeWomen have taught hundreds of kids (and adults... but mostly kids) how to log roll and how to axe throw. Keeping everyone's safety in mind, we just couldn't come up with a safe way to give log rolling lessons in our small pool... if we had access to a large beach at a lake or pond that could have been different... but traveling with a 20ft x 20ft pool makes social distancing a struggle! 
We put a ton of time and effort into figuring out and planning how to travel and safely perform AxeWomen shows this year. Honestly, the fact that we haul a 30-foot trailer was probably the one thing that helped us the most this year! We were able to pick up the ladies on the team as we drove across the country, after we had quarantined for two weeks. We could all bring our own sleeping bags, sheets, pillows and coolers of food, and pack them in the trailer. We researched ahead of time and rented state park cabins to stay in while in Iowa and Nebraska. The cabins had full kitchens... so we never had to go out to eat. And the huge diesel tank in our truck lets us drive nearly all day before we need to fill up... really limiting our exposure to others along the way! 
It was nice to learn that with some research ahead of time to find out what all the state travel rules and guidelines were, we could definitely travel safely and responsibly in 2020!

​We were recently asked if axe throwing demos and lessons could be done safely... at first the thought of sharing axes really scared me! 
But... the more we thought about it we realized that axe throwing lessons could totally be done safely in a pandemic! Whenever we teach people to axe throw, we are always out in a big open area... perfect for social distancing!! And... a few bottles of disinfectant spray and some disinfectant wipes made the axes perfectly safe! 
Who would have thought that we would be spending 2020 axe throwing with masks and sanitizing axes??? But here we are... doing just that! And feeling thankful that we are!!