So Blog365 is leveling off at just over 1000 people the piled up work is not yet done. I have made it through MOST of my RSS updates for the MegaFeed site, but they are not yet complete. So I am trying to squeeze in the updates as best as I can.
Today, whilst not doing updates, I cut down the remainder of a big dead pine tree in my back yard. If you are not familiar with my tree dilemma, see THIS post, it will clear up some background info. The good news is that 2 out of 3 trees that needed to be removed, have been removed. The second one was kind of an oops though.
You see, right before my birthday (Dec. 23rd) I looked out the window from the guest room and noticed that the top third of one of our dead pines was no longer….in the top third position. My heart jumped and I freaked out a little bit thinking about what it might have hit on the way down. Well apparently it didn’t hit anything, thank God, but it was a bit of a mess and it was time to take care of it.
I grabbed ye ole’ chainsaw today and coaxed it into sawing up the top third that was on the ground, easy as pie. Then the clutch started messing up, so I took the saw apart and re-tightened the clutch, hoping my little eBay deal would make it through the real task at hand. I somehow managed to throw a rope over the lone branch at the top of the tree so I could tie off the tree and pull it in the direction I wanted it to fall. I actually tied the rope around the back of the tree, so at a glance it looked like I was making some kind of huge slingshot.
I fired up the chainsaw and started cutting. My saw was a bit small for the size of the tree, but I was confident in my ability to go at it from all angles to get it cut down. Let me tell you, cutting a log on the ground into pieces is much easier than cutting sideways into a standing tree. Maybe my saw was dull of just a piece of crap, but it seems like it took forever to notch the front of the tree and then cut the back. I had to take a couple of breaks because my hands were literally seizing up. The saw I have does not have the nifty dampening system that larger saws have, so all of those vibrations went right to my fingers.
Eventually the tree started to fall and it landed exactly where I wanted it to. I was pretty proud since I could have dropped it on fences, a pool, or even a house. I planned it out and thought twice before cutting. The very best part of cutting down trees is the THUD that you hear and feel when it lands on the ground. I guess that thud could be a bad sound too, depending on where the tree goes.
Anyway, that was my day. My hands hurt, I still typed a book about it for Blog365s sake, and I am getting my post in at the 11th hour. Still counts though.
One last thought, I think the vibrating saw of death did a job on my hands because they hurt like heck. I remember having some weird pain in my left hand after rolling bags for four hours at the National Folk Festival and I got a chance to remember first hand how it felt after cutting the tree down today. Hopefully it will go away and I can keep ahead of that CTS I have been worried about.
Blog On!
-Kamen