Firewood take 2

First, on an unrelated note: I enjoyed telling my wife and kids that I am under house arrest. It happened when they asked what that thing on my ankle is for. The truth is that I'm a control in a study of how stroke victims my age move about. I have to wear a pedometer for four days, and mark a checklist of my activities. I'm pretty sure I'll be the only participant who marks "taking care of chickens," and "gathering and splitting firewood" under "other." I wonder if the pedometer detects (ahem) other activities.

Here's a picture of how I left the tree last week, about half cut up. Yo might recall that I wore down my newly sharpened chain doing this much. I'm not aware of hitting dirt, but it got to be a lot of work making the saw cut. The dividing line between bogging down the chain to a stop and levering down hard enough to cut got harder and harder to stay on, and it required more and more pressure. Those of you familiar with chainsaws know exactly what I'm talking about. Another thing a dull saw usually does, is cut crooked, particularly on large logs. When you cut a log whose diameter is nearly twice your saw blade's length, this is a critical failing. Yes, you can cut a log up to twice the length of your bar if you know what you're doing. Think about it.

So here's what happens when you cut with a saw that doesn't cut straight—a lot of extra cutting; the cut doesn't line up as you work your way around the log. Remember, it's harder to cut, too. Note, however, that I am a safe operator. My ear protectors are visible next to the saw. I wear gloves and steel-toed shoes out here, too.

Here are some nice clean cuts from the second session's (yesterday's) work. The small black area on the right-hand log is the top of the cavity carved out by ants, which was the reason for the tree's fall and consequent demise last year. The ants were still happily holed up in the log (no pun intended)—until I divided their apartment complex into fourths. You'll see a more damaged log in the next post.

The woods wasn't still during the week. One of the pieces I had cut last week had rolled away and fallen on its side (you can just see it behind the log in the top picture.). Two spiders had woven large webs on it, and when I noticed them, they were nicely sprinkled with wood chips from today's cutting. Would have made a nice photo, perhaps, but I had a chainsaw in my hand. I was careful to leave them undisturbed for the time being. They'll probably be gone by the time I get that piece harvested.

The area is full of Jack-in-the-Pulpits, and I went to a fair amount of effort to avoid stepping on them. This time of year about all you see is their seed clusters, which are still pretty interesting. I think these were the fattest J-i-t-P seeds I have ever seen.
Next post: what happens when I get this stuff home.