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10/07/2006: "God Bless the Chainsaw!"

The chainsaw is one of those tools that we are lucky to have. It is a technology that earns its keep through its high efficiency rate. Using hand saws, it would have taken us a week to do what we did today, and we would be tremendously sore!



These piles of wood will be our main source of heat this winter and next, with more to come!

This is the downed oak we were working on today. It is at the edge of the woodlot and has been down for several months. Nate and I had been eyeing it as a potential source of wood.


My father gave us a chainsaw, but it did not want to cooperate, so we opted to buy a new one that our neighbor recommended. We bought our chainsaw from Corvallis Power Equipment. They did a great job helping us decide on the right saw, and pride themselves on taking care of customers.

This is a photo of Nate taking the first cut with his new chainsaw. We bought full safety gear, including chaps and a hardhat with metal mesh screen and ear protection. We also both wore our heavy duty hunting boots. We like our limbs!



Again, the Suzuki came in very handy. Today we employed it to haul several loads of cut wood! The bark adds a nice touch to the straw from our last Suzuki adventure.



Limb-wood of about 16 inches is ideal for the new cookstove. There were plenty of limbs to be had, and we plan on splitting the larger pieces. It's very gratifying to procure our own heat from the resources on the farm. Tomorrow we will finish with this magnificent tree and begin splitting and stacking, that is, if we aren't too sore!