Beware of Shiny Squirrels!

The day started with a plan. It was time to tackle the lathe area. Clear all the unwanted or misplaced “stuff”. Throw out or find new homes for things which seem to grow from the cracks in the floor. I had a plan. However, mother nature had a plan too. The January day was unseasonably warm. It had rained last night so the ground was soft and it was overcast. As I looked out across the back yard, I heard the sound of wood, under great stress, cracking. Noting that at least a dozen trees were down, in the woods, I also saw the hound playing under another tree, the tree that was moaning its last, the tree that was leaning, the tree that had to come down. A shiny, chrome colored squirrel just ran by and took with it, one hundred percent of my attention. No working on the shop today, today would be yard work, chainsaw, bar oil, and Anchorseal. Yet, by the end of the day, the shop would win too!

A lumberjack I am…NOT. Honestly, felling trees scares the crap out of me. Sure, I own a chainsaw. That’s for cutting stuff already down. Not 20 inch diameter trees of whose entire weight is on one or two stress points. With over 20 years as a medic, I have seen far too many times what happens when something under stress suddenly pops. Cautiously, I approached.

My chainsaw fired up on the second pull. First the six inch oak that is pinned under the base. About half way through, the oak tree cracks with a loud pop. I back off. This is not helping my confidence. Maybe a cut on the pine would help, or maybe not. The base of the pine is resting on the stump. A few hairs of bark holding on. This does not need a chain saw. I return with a sledge. 1 Hit, two hits, three hits,  boom. The tree falls to a nice workable height.

Granted any would be lumberjack could have cut it down and not broke a sweat. Did I mention I am not a lumber jack? However, as I look around, I begin to see something that peeks my interest. A birch was hit by the pine, an oak tree was also hit and damaged, as well as a hickory and a small cedar. While none of these are large enough to yield any significant board stock, they can all yield turning stock. With new enthusiasm the chain saw fires up as turning blanks pile high!

Break out the Anchorseal! When it comes to drying green logs, I have found Anchorseal to be the MVP of the game. When dealing with large diameters, simply brushing a heavy coat on the cut ends will do nicely. For the smaller diameters, I prefer to dip them into the can. Once dried the log will be marked and stood up for drying. Depending on species and size the process may take up to 2 years. Though I find with these smaller ones it takes about 4 to 6 months. 

So, I didn’t get to clear space or build a new table, but I did get to add some new stock to my inventory and I opened up yet another project for 2013….The Great Back Yard Clearing. More on that later.

Until next time,

Kevin