Still Sawing Wood, But 90% Finished

 The last "10%" will be rearranging some shelves in the garage to hold this bounty, and then moving it from the backyard to the garage.

All the apple wood is cut and ready for storage:

And the "Pile In The Corner" is getting more manageable:

And of course, my Field Supervisor is quite happy with the progress:

Still have a lot to do, including dragging in some the ash cuttings, which are very dry, and should burn fine. But, I can see the end of the tunnel, and maybe next week in between the raindrops I can get my 90' wire antenna back up.

Slowly We Turned, Step By Step....

 And POOF! the big pile of branches was gone!

And they raked up the yard very nicely, since we had saved them the trouble of dragging all that stuff out of the back.

The back yard is cleaning up, too, since they carted off the branches we were too pooped to move yesterday.

 

BUT we have some more crab apple wood to cut up.

And some more big pieces of the ash tree to cut up. This has to be one of the worst pix I've ever taken. Somehow I bumped the mode to flash, and it wonked out in the bright sunlight....

Today was a "day off" to recuperate, and I'll get back to cutting this up tomorrow. I think the major part of it's finished, but I'll rethink that after I get all this stuff cut up and then have to move it!

Tomorrow all the trees get a "Root Drench", and the ash tree will get inoculated against the Emerald Ash Borer. Tree Guy said he didn't see ANY signs of the malicious green tree-killing beetle, so he says we should be fine.

Gotta head out and get some of these to feed and deep water the trees:

Almost Finished Clearing The Broken Tree Out

 And where's my Tylenol??

So far, we've spent about 12 hours on this unexpected "project", but we made a significant dent in it since Thursday when I started using the saw.

We went from this:

To this in the back:

And from this:

To this in the front:

Besides the one bundle-of-sticks in the second photo, we have this for the tree guy to haul away. The pile is about 20' long, 4' high, and 3' deep.

And we managed to salvage a bunch of firewood. This is *maybe* 20% of what we'll have when I'm finished. Still have some small branches and twigs to bust off this pile:

But this pile is about ready to stack. The one log that's split is where the upper third of the trunk broke and peeled away from what's left of the tree.

And I still have this big dude to dismember:

It's about 10' long and 8~10" in diameter, so I'll either have to saw or split the logs once I cut them to a manageable length.

Time for a hot shower and some dinner.......

It's A Boy!

 Well, The Kids just stopped by to pick up The Little Guy from his Sunday night sleep over, and they'd just come from the Doctor's office. We had a wonderful non-traditional Easter dinner, with home made carnitas for tacos, rice, refried beans, and all the fixin's. Hope your Easter celebration was as blessed as ours.

First, I'm impressed at how for Medical Imaging has come. The MRI scans of my hip last year were astounding (to me...) in their detail, and the ultrasound exams are FAR more detailed than The Old Days. You can clearly see that yep, It's A BOY!

So TLG is going to be a big brother, and now The Kids have to decide what to name him. The DIL had girl names picked out, but God gives what he does, and this time it's a boy.

Chainsawin' Away!

 Grooooan......my back and shoulders are going to hate me tomorrow, I just know....

So we spent about two hours last night limbing and cutting the smaller stuff up, as there was a thicket of it before I could even get within a couple of feet of the big stuff.

This is what it looked like after the storm:

After two hours last night of cutting off the larger branches, and clearing the front of the gate, we had this, a huge pile of branches in front of the gate:

And a growing pile of small stuff to be cleared away later:

And much better access to the main limbs so I could clear them of branches before doing the "logging ops":

The picture above is from this afternoon when I started again. The wife was doing KP, and I was on Bathroom Duty in the morning, so I didn't get started until after 1600. I was eighty degrees here today, with not a cloud in the sky, so by 1600 the backyard is shaded, and I could do this without cooking.

After about 90 minutes of work, with about 45 minutes being actual run-time on the saw, the batteries were down to one bar, and I noticed the oil tank was getting low, so I packed it in for a while. So it looks like two sets of batteries is when it needs oil, and when I pulled the drive sprocket cover it had quite an accumulation of oil-soaked wood dust and chips in it, so I'll pull the cover and clean it out every battery swap.

But it's getting cleaned up, and the Tree Guy should be able to get his bucket truck in here next week.

Sorry for the crummy pix, but I used the built-in flash, which doesn't cut it for backyard pix! I had to punch these up a bit with the GIMP, and my GIMP-foo isn't what it used to be.

We're going to have some nice firewood out of this:

And the saw works great! This sucker is just about 9" thick, and I easily got through it in maybe 25~30 seconds, with no strain on the saw:

No where's my Tylenol......

 

First Use of the New Chainsaw

 And when I was done, it was too dark to take pix, so I'll take some tomorrow before I start in on it again.

Our Tree Guy was over today to inspect the damage, and sure enough, the limbs that broke off were the ones he wanted to cut back in the Fall.

Since the tree has lost about 40% of it's canopy, he said it will likely go into shock, and he has to get out here to clean up where they broke from the trunk, and tar up the wound to seal it off from water ingress, which causes rot, and insects that will be attracted to the fresh break when the sap starts flowing strongly.

Our other two trees are OK, but the maple tree in the front needs specific deep-feeding (Like my Dad used to do to ours) and some pruning. The area had a lot of junipers growing there, and they acidify the soil, which isn't good for maple trees.

The crab apple tree needs some pruning back to encourage it grow a stronger canopy, but otherwise is doing OK.

And since he knows chainsaws, we spent some time going over the Makita, and he made a couple of cuts with it. Her says it seems "Pretty Damn Good", and should be more than enough for me.

So, after he left, I up-armored, and took it out to the tree. I had everything hanging over the fence cut back in about 20 minutes. Some of the branches were 2"~3" in diameter, and it went through them like butter. I took it in the back and started cutting branches off the limbs so I could get back to the gate and get the bigger limbs that had landed on the gate. Again, it just went though stuff up to 3" like it wasn't there.

Then I went after the bigger stuff to free the gate. 6"~8" limbs were cut through in maybe 15~20 seconds, and the saw went right through them with no moaning, groaning, slowing down, or laboring. It just went through anything I threw at it in short order with no complaining. I checked the batteries, and they were down to one bar, so since it was getting dark, we shut down for the night. In the two hours I was out there it probably had a good thirty minutes of run-time, as I was busy cutting, and SLW was busy dragging the branches out of the way for me. Yes, I made her wear PPE, too.

I let the batteries cool (they were warm, but not hot) while I cleaned the saw, and then plugged them in the charger. The saw chain tension looked and felt the same after I was finished cutting, and the oil level had dropped about half-way. The blade is noticeably damp with oil, but not dripping wet, so I think the oiler is OK as-is, with no adjustment required.

All-in-all I'm satisfied with this saw, but that could change with more use. It's a lot quieter than even a well-muffled two-stroke, doesn't blow oily exhaust out, and seems to have more than enough power to do the job.

Pix to follow tomorrow.

Welcome to "Ma Kita"!

 She's not Ma Duece, but will hopefully meet my needs.

Some assembly was required, namely charging the batteries, and installing the chain and bar. The batteries went from one blinking bar on the indicator, to fully-charged in about 40 minutes. Depending on the run time I get, this would be a nice break from cutting to recharge myself and the batteries.

Had to back off the tensioner two full turns to get the bar and chain on, and when I turned it back those two turns, the chain tension seemed to be just right.

Filled it with oil, snapped the batteries in it, and ran the chain at low speed until I could see some oil on it.

Off to Home Depot tomorrow to get some chaps. SLW agrees 100%, and wants me to be safe and comfortable while I'm doing this work. I have hard hats, goggles, face shields, hearing protectors, and several pairs of work gloves, from lightweight to Rhino Hide, so I should be good-to-go after I get the chaps.

Stay tuned. I've never used one of these before, but the manual is full of information on how to safely do limbing, and cutting large things. This has a 16" bar, and I don't think I'll be cutting anything bigger than 8~10", so I hope it's big enough. SLW was worried I was going to get some 5HP monster with a 30" bar, but she's quite pleased with this one.

I don't think she'll ever use it, but then I never thought I'd see her driving a pick-up truck, either!

Bought A Chainsaw.....

 But first, a bit of 'back story'....

My step-son came over today, went up on the roof with a hand axe, and dropped the big limb(s) that had broken off the ash tree in the last storm.

And drop it he did!

Right on the gate....

 

The Tree Guy was supposed to come next week, safely get it down, and cut it up for me into manageable sections, whereupon I'd strip the branches, and reduce it to fireplace-sized wood for our use next winter. 

WELL.....Sweet Little Wife has "A Thing" about stuff like this. She wants it fixed ASAP, and that's generally a good idea if I can do the work. Stuff like removing large pieces of tree laying on the roof and house is outside my experience and comfort level. Seeing as I don't climb anymore above about 10' or so, that means I'm NOT going on the roof except under extreme duress, and this ain't it.

So the tree limb(s) came down, whacked the fence gate pretty good, and came *this close* to taking out my antenna, which I was going to get untangled from the tree, and coiled up out of the way for the Tree Guy.

So she "saved" $700 by canceling the tree guy, which necessitated buying a $500  chainsaw so I can cut up this YUGE pile of future firewood. When it comes to tools, I generally "Buy Big or Go Home", so since I'd been stealthily shopping since the storm did the damage, I had an idea what I wanted. Should be here (FREE Shipping!) on Wednesday.

Somehow I think the gate is going to be well over $200 to get properly repaired/replaced, but to her, it's moot....

So what, pray tell, instrument of Massive Wood Destruction did I buy?

A Makita cordless with a 16" bar:

Would I buy this if I were LL, out in the wilderness, or LSP in the wilds of Texas? No, but for a "homeowner in Colorado" it should be sufficient. It has 600 reviews on Home Depot, and they're almost all 4 and 5 stars. I have a cordless Makita 1/2" Impact Wrench, and I can't run it down. Even after removing and installing two sets of tires on two vehicles, and day-long sessions on the Supra, it had plenty of juice left, so I'm hoping my light-duty use of the chainsaw is similar.

But about that gate......

Saturday Night at the Movies!

 SLW and I will be watching "The Maltese Falcon" tonight while enjoying some pizza from a local place. She doesn't recall ever seeing it before, so I'm hoping she'll enjoy it. I've been filling in the blanks in my movie collection the last few months, and this movie is a recent acquisition, along with "The Bridges at Toko Ri", "Giant", and "Casablanca".

In the meantime, enjoy some humor.....

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Storm Damage

 Now that the snow has mostly melted, I did some further examination of the damage we had from the storm.

Lost some branches from the crab apple tree, which will get stripped, cut up, and put on the drying rack.

 And the far end support for my wire antenna got ripped off the fence post it was screwed to when the limbs from the ash tree snapped.

 

It tore the lag screws right out by the roots. I was lucky I had it mounted the way I did, as the short lags I used acted like a "mechanical fuse", and saved the wire from breaking.

 

As to what brought down the antenna, well, we're gonna need a bucket truck and/or man lift to get up there and remove the limbs.

 

Looks like one limb peeled away, and what was left couldn't support the limb above it.

Gutter zero, tree one!

 When the arborist was here the last time, he recommended we get these two cut back some so they could handle wet snow better. We also need to get this tree inoculated against the Emerald Ash Borer, which is slowly working it's way up here.

Oh, well, at least we'll get some "free" firewood out of this.

MAJOR Closure of I-25

 YOW!!!!

 

I left at 1330 to pick up my wife at DIA, where she was returning on a 1500 flight. Normally it takes me just about an hour from when I leave until I'm in the terminal.

 It took over two hours today, and SLW was frantic when I finally met her. Of all the times I've "forgotten" to take my cellphone with me, this one was just about the worst-case scenario. Fortunately she'd called our DIL who promptly informed her that the highway was CLOSED, and the detours could be "iffy" if you don't know the area well, and not to panic until I was over an hour late, which I was. As soon as SLW saw me walking in she burst into tears, and it took a good 15 minutes to calm her down.

Turns out a tanker truck with 12,000 gallons of diesel aboard had rolled over about 0100 this morning on the stretch of I-25 between US 34 and Larimer County Road 402. Traffic was blocked, going both directions, along this 2 mile stretch of I-25.

And the tanks broke open, spilling ALL of the diesel fuel out onto the highway, and into a drainage ditch adjacent to the Big Thompson River.

It's a first-class, Grade "A" mess, and will be until 1300 tomorrow when they're planning on opening I-25 back up after all the clean-up, decontamination, and emergency road repairs.

Coming home also took over two hours, but that was mostly due to very heavy traffic on the roads being used for the detours.

Between learning to really read and understand the map symbols for roads on the truck's GPS, and the 45 minutes I just spent using Google Maps, I now have a much better ideas of the state and county roads around here, and how to use them vs just hopping on the Interstate.

And I just put a couple of paper maps and an atlas in the truck.....