Sharpening Up on Skills

"If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.  - Abraham Lincoln

I listen to a podcast called "The Art of Manliness."  I'm subscribed to their weekly newsletter and they send me emails.  Of of the things I like is they send a weekly "Skill that Every Man Needs to Know."  Some that come to mind are: How to start a campfire in the rain, How to escape a riptide, How to Whistle with your fingers...  You get the idea.  HERE IS A LINK to 100 skills every man should know.  I was thinking about incorporating this into my life.  

One of the things I don't think is in that list is, but should be if it isn't is:  How to properly sharpen a chainsaw.  One of the things that makes cutting logs difficult is if you've allowed your chainsaw to become dull.  You'll know this because you are working too hard!  You'll also know it's dull if your chainsaw is making sawdust instead of wood chips.

My little $69 electric pole saw was doing just that.  I ordered another chain just to be on the safe side (1 is none and two is one!)  I have more than gotten my money out of this little saw, but it has a lot of limbs yet to cut.

Even though I have a new chain, I wanted to do a good job in sharpening the chain on it and get some more use out of it.  I've sharpened chainsaws before with a little rat tail file, but really didn't know what I was doing.  This time, I figured I would learn and do it correctly.  I purchased a 5/32 circular file with a guide.  It cost me a whopping $9.99.  You'll note it has angles on the guide.

The reason why is that you are supposed to sharpen the teeth at a 30 degree angle.

Pick out the tooth you are starting with and mark it with a Sharpie so you know when you are finished.  You simply line the file up on the teeth, positioning your file and guide with the 30 degree angle and push forward until you are even with the last 30 degree line.  Only go one way.  I did it three times.  Then I moved on to the next one.

Before long I was finished.  I want to show you something crazy.  Look at the directions on the back of the file!:

SHUT OFF SAW MOTOR BEFORE SHARPENING

What type of a meat head would try to sharpen his chainsaw while it was running?  I guess a meat head with missing fingers.  What in the world happened to us as a people?  It reminds me of reading this the other day: 

Car manuals in the 1960s told you how to adjust valve clearances, now they tell you not to drink the battery fluid

Ha!

So with the chainsaw sharpened, it was time to test it out.  There were some live oak branches that had grown to where they are touching the roof.  Time to do some trimming.  I leaned the ladder on the roof and set off to test the sharpness of the chainsaw blade.  

Tricia hates when I do this.  I assured her that my affairs are in order as I headed up the ladder.  I pushed the button and the blade chewed through the limbs like a hot knife through butter.  What a difference it made!  It was so easy to cut, I've gone all around the house trimming branches.  The goats and cows are enjoying eating the green leaves off of the limbs.  

The Top of the World

I'm on the top of the world lookin' down on creation
And the only explanation I can find
Is the love that I've found, ever since you've been around
Your love's put me at the top of the world

Way back in 1972, the Carpenters sang a song with the above lyrics as the chorus.  It was about being on "top of the world" because of being in love.  Although I am indeed in love with my wife, something else put me on top of the world on Saturday - a desire to cut some limbs from one of our live oak trees.  The limbs in question had grown and were being pulled by gravity so that they were rubbing on the roof on top of the dormer windows.  This is no good.  I don't want them to damage our roof, especially with hurricane season coming up in a month and a half.

Trimming the offending limbs was the last thing on my to do list for the weekend and it was last for a reason.  Tricia is not in favor of 'risky' tasks like this.  I surreptitiously got the pickup truck backed up to the house, extended the ladder almost all the way and braced it against the front of the pickup truck bed.  The plan was to get this done like Seal Team 6.  Move in.  Move out.  Mission accomplished.

There was a kink in the plans.  Before I could execute it, Tricia saw my non-OSHA-approved aerial apparatus.  I was able to talk her into allowing me to get the job done by helping me to hold the ladder steady and to hand me the extendable pole chain saw.  

I gingerly climbed the ladder, got the chainsaw lifted up, and cut through four or five limbs and watched them (not me) tumble down the roof and to the ground.  I was pretty high up.  Like being on top of the world.  I am not afraid of heights, but I wasn't keen on falling and hitting the ground either.  A quick joke about the life insurance being paid up was not appreciated by Tricia.  In the end, we had Success!  We filled the back of the pickup truck with live oak branches and drove around to the back and fed them to the goats.  Goats love browse.  In no time flat, they had eaten every single leaf off of the limbs.

I love it when a plan comes together that is a win-win for all involved.  A task was taken off the to-do list without loss of life or (my) limb and the goats got fed.

Pulling Down The Widow-makers

Hurricanes Laura and Delta rolled through here about a year and four months ago, leaving a wide swath of destruction.  We posted about it several times back then.  Our son's home was finally repaired after a year.  There are still plenty of "blue roofs" around.  I'm speaking of the blue tarps used to cover leaky roofs.  I assume some did not have homeowner's coverage or are waiting for final settlement.

We were so fortunate to not have damage.  One thing we did have is a LOT of branches/limbs down.  If it would ever get cold here, we'd burn some of the firewood in the fireplace that we got from a bunch of the larger limbs.  I've been splitting them up with an ax.  There is one hazard remaining, though.  Widow makers.  Widow Makers are large limbs that were broken off by the hurricane force winds.  They hang downward, but are caught by other limbs that prevent gravity from doing its job and bringing them down to earth.  Some are WAY up there and some are BIG!  If they would fall on you while you were walking underneath them, well, there is a reason for why they are called widow makers.  We'll leave it at that.

Tricia has been telling me that they were dangerous.  She mentioned that we could just be walking out to the fire pit or simply walking in the backyard and a gust of wind would blow and POOF - a large limb would fall on our heads.  So I was sort of inspired to do something about it.  The other afternoon I did.  Here is one widow maker that will not cause an outlay by our life insurance policy.  It took me a while, but I got it down.

And here is another.  This one was way up high in the tree.  It took probably 20 minutes to get this one down.  It crashed to the ground and broke in two.  Yeah, that would have left a scar on my head for sure.  What's that long rope on the bottom left, you ask?  That is my nifty ACME Widow Maker Removal Apparatus that I invented.

All it requires is a long rope, something heavy like a log to tie on the end, and a lot of patience to operate this device.  You throw it up in the air, trying to make it loop over the widow maker.  When you miss, you just have to have quick reflexes so the log you've tied on the end doesn't hit you.  Then you throw it up there again.  Over time, you'll get it.  The important thing is that once you've looped it over, you quickly wrap the rope around the log 'anchor' that is up in the tree by running around several times.  This is crucial.  If you don't wrap it around, when you pull it, the rope and log will simply pull over the widow maker and plummet back to earth.

We got 'em down!  Now we can walk in the backyard in peace without hard hats! 

We're Back! Again - Safe and Secure

First, Hurricane Laura.  Next, Hurricane Delta.  Two powerful storms coming ashore 12 miles apart from one another such a short time apart.  Really quite amazing when you think about it.  We are safe and sound.  Another stint of no power, but a friend let us borrow a generator.  At night we would turn it on to power our refrigerator, a deep freeze, and an oscillating fan so that we could sleep comfortably.  Electricity came back on for us a little quicker than it did for Laura.  Our neighbors still don't have power.  Our hats go out to all the linemen working so hard to restore power.

We weathered the storm in our home.  Tricia, Russ, Benjamin and I rode it out and prayed.  The electricity went out at about 6pm.  This time the storm passed in daylight hours and you could see the ravaging winds.  It was better to SEE instead of just hear what was going on.  We prayed for the storm to pass through quickly.  The Weather Channel was here in our small town.

Russ had a large tree fall on top of his house in the last storm and had a blue tarp on his roof when this one came through.  I could tell he was worried.  When the eye was above us, it became very still and quiet.  We quickly went to the truck and decided to try to make the 10 minute drive to check on his home while still in the eye before the back end of the storm hit us.  We left and had to turn around because of downed powerlines and poles blocking the highway.

We turned around and drove through high water to find another open route to his home.  We ALMOST made it before things got rough again.  We were glad to make it to shelter in his home for the last part of the storm.  We re-positioned buckets in his house to catch rainwater falling into three rooms in his house.  The next day we put a new tarp up on the roof.  

For several days, we cooked on a Coleman stove you can see on the patio table above.  We also ate some MRE's and food donated by some gracious ministries distributing aid around our town.  Samaritan's Purse was here in Jennings along with many other fine folks, helping in peoples' time of need.  All in all, even though Delta zeroed in on us in Jennings, we felt like the winds were stronger in Laura.

We had no damage to our home once again.  Praise God!  When this storm was coming in, I remarked to my wife that we probably wouldn't have any limbs down since Laura had "pruned" the weak limbs, leaving only the strong.  My theory proved to be incorrect.  We had quite a few limbs down, though not as much as in the first storm.  The entire yard had broken branches strewn about, and it took the better part of a day to drag them all to the pasture.

The cows and goats took full advantage of the buffet of fresh live oak leaves we placed before them!  They quickly devoured and defoliated the branches while we drug new branches in like the next course to a meal.  

Here they are in action from a different angle.  We will have a nice bonfire once things dry out a bit.

The next morning I had to drive in to work to check on the facility.  There were countless 18 wheelers and campers turned on their sides on I-10, including four 18 wheelers turned over on the Calcasieu River Bridge in Lake Charles.  Though out of power, things were okay at work.

Our neighbors called and checked on us during the storm.  They had windows that were being busted out of the frames to their patio by the strong easterly winds.  We talked to them more after the storm.  They took some serious damage to their barn, losing a total of 230 month-old chicks they were rasing to the storm!  Although there was lots of damage, people are safe.  People are thankful that the damage wasn't worse than it was.  People are thankful to have their families, friends and neighbors out of harm's way.  God is good!  Thanks for your prayers and concern.  We will be back Sunday night.

The Burn Pile - Hurricane Laura Edition

A full month and a week after the hurricane, I had a Saturday off where I could take care of some things that sorely needed some action.  We don't live in town so we don't have curbside pickup of trees and debris.  Or so we thought.  Tricia got word that they would be picking up limbs and storm debris for rural citizens.  We burned a whole bunch of limbs and sticks in the pasture, but we still had a bunch left.  Tricia and the boys had stacked a huge pile by the road in anticipation of the truck to come pick it up.  We waited and waited and waited, but it the truck never came.

Finally, we gave up hope.  I figured I would do it myself.  I backed up our truck to the pile and slowly gathered the debris into the bed.  I took the photo below after I had already picked up about half of the pile.  It took a long time.  I started around 9:30 and finished at 3:30. 

Despite not having roadside pickup of debris, I am still grateful to live in the country.  So many neighbors waved while passing by.  Others stopped to talk.  Just friendly country folk.  One neighbor rolled down her window to let me know she had just stopped by and put a bag of oranges and two bags of grapes "just to bless us."  I wouldn't trade simple, country living for anything.

It was such a beautiful day, I didn't mind working.  Not one bit.  I wish I had counted the number of truckloads I took to the back for burning.  Slowly, I began to put a dent in the pile.

Before too long, I was done!  The grass under the pile was dead from being covered by branches and leaves for a month, but it will grow back.

After the second load to the back, I set the pile on fire.  Despite being a little green, the fire roared, quickly consuming the leaves and branches.  Each time I would bring another truckload of sticks and limbs, I would dump it onto the fire and the flames would reach back up to the sky.

As the pile in the front of the house by the road got smaller, so did the pile in back of the house as a result of the insatiable appetite of the fire.  Pay attention to the Rubbermaid water trough lying on its side in the background behind the fire.  It becomes a central character in the rest of the story.

The nosy animals came to check out the happenings.  Each time I would open the gate to back the pickup truck in and unload yet another load onto the fire, the cows and goats would gather at the gate.  I had to be real careful to quickly close the gate or they would get out.  Sometimes the cows would sit right in the path of the truck, and I would have to honk the horn to get them to move.  Pay particular attention to the head of the bull in the bottom right-hand side of the photo below.  He plays another leading role in the story that follows.

On Saturday afternoon, the job was done.  I was tired, but happy. It is rewarding to finish a job of an honest day's work and see the fruits of your labors.  The fire burned all Saturday night.  By Sunday afternoon, all that remained of the pile was a heap of smoldering coals.  

Sunday night at 10PM I was turning off the lights to go to bed.  Something didn't seem right.  I looked out of the french doors and saw a huge fire in the pasture.  It looked like the barn might be on fire!  I yelled to Benjamin to meet me outside.  We both ran out in time to see flames leaping 15 feet into the air.  When I determined that it was NOT the barn afire, I thought it may be a ruptured gas pipeline.  It was burning with such vigor.

As we ran closer, we were able to identify that it was the Rubbermaid trough burning.  And boy, did it burn!  There was nothing we could do but stand and watch it as the flames lit up the surrounding area and thick black smoke filled the air.  We determined what happened.  Bulls, as they are apt to do, like to push and rub on things with their heads.  The empty trough is used as a feeding trough.  The other two catch rainwater off the roof for drinking.  The bulls had pushed the empty trough into the smoldering coals and it caught on fire.

Now we'll have to find another bucket to use as a feeding trough come feeding time!  Good news: the burn pile was gone.  Bad news: So is our feeding trough.  Oh well, it could always be worse.