My New Toy

Scavenging for firewood is a way of life, I'm always checking craiglist, ladies line, and the like, or mooching off family members that have some property where we can cut trees.  A few months ago I was able to bring home a small trailerload of wood, but due to time constraints it wasn't cut to firewood length but rather in six or seven foot lengths that fit in the trailer.  Being mostly dead popple wood the long pieces aren't too heavy, but obviously they have to be bucked up before they're useful.

I've mentioned before my struggles with pull starts, so I wasn't too keen to get out the big chainsaw and deal with the whole gas/oil mix, pull start/argue with it thing, so the load of wood just sort of sat in the backyard.  Then I came across a nifty little idea when surfing eBay:

Ok, it sort of looks like a toy.  It kind of feels like a toy, too.  But it was just the perfect tool for this job!  With Daughter holding the logs steady on an old sawhorse, it was easy work to buck them up into fireplace lengths.  Quick, easy, quiet, and very lightweight, the new saw had plenty of power for the chore and didn't give me a backache or get me cussin' like the gas saw does.  It obviously isn't designed for felling trees in the woods, but I think it's going to get a lot of use for general yard chores like pruning or cutting back the fencerow.  Having the cord trailing along is a bit of a nuisance, but no worse than any other power tool.  The only negative comment on it came from Daughter, who thought it let me get waaay too ambitious about chores on a Sunday afternoon.  She's more used to having some free time after church, but we just had to do outside stuff, it was sunny and 60!   In the space of just three hours or so we got all this wood cut and stacked.

Lots of redwing blackbirds around, and some have reported robins in their yards though I haven't seen any yet.  Spring is just around the corner.......which here means there just might be another blizzard yet, so I'll make use of the 'chore' weather while I can!

By the way, the ginger ale bottle was rock hard with pressure today, so it's in the fridge getting cold.  There's lots of floaty bits of ginger in it, so we'll probably strain it and try it out later tonight.

Until next time, God bless you and keep you my friends.