Lumberjack Extraordinaire

Yes, you might as well call my Paul Bunyan. All I lack is a giant Blue Ox following me around. (and maybe about 40 feet of height, and a massive axe, and ... well, ok, maybe the comparison isn't completely precise)

Saturday was our work day at Mary's. Our clogging group does a work day each spring at her house in thanks for all she does at clogging.

I got to play with chainsaws all day! The first to receive my tender ministrations was a giant limb which had fallen - thirty feet long, over two feet thick at the base, and mostly hollow. That was followed by chopping up several limbs which had fallen from a thoroughly dead tree, not as large individually, but what they lacked in size they made up for in quantity.

That was a marvelous little warm-up, but then came the main attraction! A big, dead tree had been dropping limbs for a couple years. (the ones mentioned above) It was about two feet thick at the base, and around sixty feet tall! It was at least a hundred feet from the house, so we didn't have to worry about that, but we didn't want it falling on a couple other trees.

I must admit it was a bit nerve-wracking when the tree was starting to creak, but didn't show which way it was falling yet. I had cut out a very nice notch in the direction I wanted it to fall, and fortunately the remaining limbs were in that general direction too. Still, lots of fun when I was making the last couple cuts while it was creaking away.

The top of the tree fell about twenty feet off from where I was hoping, but it was well within the safe area. All was good!

Of course, then I had to cut the whole thing up.

All in all, I had a chainsaw in my hands from around 9:20 in the morning until 7:30 at night, with a half hour break for lunch. My back muscles are sore.

I had so much fun!!!