I have not been writing these little adventures promptly and they are starting to run together.
Two weeks ago Monday we went to our cabin with our daughter-in-law and granddaughter. I don't think I cut any trees down; I just cut the trees from Episode 5 into fireplace lengths and piled them by splitting stumps. Our granddaughter had fun wandering around the cabin area.
That was also the day I took the wild turkey pictures on the way home. See http://magree.blogspot.com/2009/04/now-i-really-understand-turkey-shoot.html
A week ago Monday we went to our cabin to continue felling trees.
First I wanted to clear the brush with the sickle mower that hadn't started before. This time I figured out that the socket wrench was with the chipper/shredder but it wasn't. I thought again and looked harder in a shed and found the little box with parts, wrenches, and a magnetic wand.
I pulled out the plug and it was rather black, but not coated. I tried squirting starter fluid in the carburetor and would get a tentative start. After many, many tries the sickle mower kept going. I ran it to the brush that I wanted to cut and down some went. Then some didn't. I backed off and went at different angle and down they went. Repeat many times moving forward a few clumps at a time. The mower doesn't have much power and I know the blade is dull. Keep going. Then the sickle mower dies and won't start. The route to the shed seems like miles because the mower does not free wheel well. I promise myself to buy a new plug and install the sharper blade next weekend.
Back to the nippers to clear the brush and then cut the trees down. Almost all of them fell the way I wanted them to. However, I saw that one would be going just the opposite direction and could hit some 12-16 feet spruce that we had planted about sixteen years ago. I had to plot this carefully.
I thought I saw the proper direction and it would probably break two smaller aspen that I would be cutting anyway. Make my cuts; there it goes! Smash against one of the small trees breaking off the top third. It keeps coming down right between the two small trees. How lucky can I get?
With all the fooling around with the sickle mower, I have no time left to delimb or cut today's trees up.
Meanwhile, my wife had been busy chipping some of last year's brush and branches and putting the chips on a path. I don't think the chipper jammed at all.
Yesterday we were back at it again. I was armed with a new spark plug for the sickle mower. I replaced the plug and with the aid of starter fluid I got it started. I left it running to use up the gas just in case the gas was too old.
We ate lunch and the sickle mower stopped. When I checked it was still half full of gas. I tried and tried to get it restarted. It just would sputter.
Back to the backbreaking use of nippers.
After that, I change the chain on the saw and refill the gas and oil. Off to saw away. But it doesn't work very fast. Check the teeth. They don't seem very sharp. When I had picked up two chains after sharpening, I was told that one didn't need sharpening. Maybe the shop was wrong. I change the chain again, but I'm not too impressed with the sharpness of the teeth.
I was right. The cutting goes slow. I persist and down comes one tree, two trees, and a third I have to push the right direction.
I tackle a fourth, bigger tree. This looks iffy because it leans the way I want and then some limbs are the way I don't want. Let's give it a go. Slow going to get the notch. Start the back cut. The tree isn't falling. I get a wedge and pound it in with a five-pound maul. The cut hardly widens and the tree doesn't fall. I look at my back cut and it is not level! OK, let's try going a bit further. The tree starts to fall, I step back, and there it goes, right where I wanted it. Whew!
I don't remember if I cut any more after that. I do know I left a small tree that has all of its branches on the wrong side. It would fall right into the spruces.
I'm out of energy and time. No delimbing or cutting into lengths today. Besides, we have to heave the sickle mower into the truck to take to the shop.
When we get to the shop, I show the chains to the manager and he agrees that neither is very sharp and he offers to sharpen them both again and not charge me for the one that should have been sharpened.
We then go out to the truck to unload the sickle mower. He thinks the problem is not old gas but a weak diaphragm in the carburetor. We will find out in a few weeks. Next weekend is clearing the fallen trees and planting the basswood seedlings.
