So, for the past two months I've been spending a few days a week cutting up a patch of beetle killed pinion for fire wood. I do it all with a bow saw. Shoulder issues make my axe work somewhat scary, and I admit to being afraid of chain saws. Haven't yet met someone who used a chain saw regularly who doesn't have a near miss story, or worse. (Mentioned this to a high school friend this past Summer and he immediately got out his phone to show me pictures of the stitches he recently got on his thigh! And he and I both learned how to use a chain saw on the same weekend in October 1978 cutting firewood for the Winter Camporee at good old Tuscarora Boy Scout reservation! But I digress.) (Oh, I do understand his grandkids are getting him a pair of chaps for Christmas.)
Anyway, this past weekend I reckoned I finally cut enough fire wood for this Winter. Spent the next day dragging brush into a pile to be chipped later
and the area where I'd cut trees looked clean as a ... um, well, a clean forest floor. Then yesterday we had a wind storm. Went back this morning and it looks like it did last week!
Now I'm thinking I should have simply cut a wedge in all of the trees and come back today to harvest! Wasn't all bad however. Take Juan...
Oh, did I mention I name my trees? Not all of them; THAT would be crazy.
Just the ones that give me trouble, and the ponderosa pine. I've been thinking about Juan Two-Tree for awhile as the twin trunks will make cutting him down with a bow saw a particular challenge. The wind didn't do the job for me, but, much as Shelly did with the beard trimmer after the barber shops in New Mexico had been closed for months, it removed the top 20-30 feet!
Oh! What did I do today? I spent it walking around the property checking for wind damage.
Tom