Well, well, I did make a prediction that came true. It did snow within two weeks in Duluth. It snowed on Tuesday and into Wednesday but not as much as the forecasts predicted.
And I had a premonition about something bad happening with the big tree I cut down. What was bad was some of the wood. It was soft or riddled with bug trails. We did keep a lot of the wood, but my chopping stump is surrounded by some very crumbly stuff; any drier and it would be powder.
One somewhat useless piece had a big hole in it and a squirrel nest in the hole. The piece must have been about twenty feet up. The material inside was grass interspersed with bright yellow pieces of fluff. The extra fluff was insulation purloined from under the floor of our cabin. We wonder how many squirrels are dying of silicosis.
One premonition I should have had was that I didn't prep my chain saw properly. I trimmed some protuding pieces on a couple of rounds before splitting them. As I finished I saw a cord dangling from the saw. What's this? It was the cord for the oil cap. I had not tightened it properly after adding bar oil. There was also a puddle of oil at my feet.
I added more oil and carefully secured the cap. I successfully cut down two smaller trees, both falling in the direction I wanted. I also cut them into rounds and split them without anything untoward happening but a sore back from bending over.
One advantage to cutting a tree up in the winter is that it rests on snow for almost its entire length. The saw rarely binds and one doesn't try to cut the dirt and stones underneath.
We may now have enough wood for three weeks next winter. Only ten to twelve weeks to go.
