So I'm sittin' here yesterday afternoon... thinkin' if I hear one more word about recidivist convicts and innocent victims... or how Saint Barack is JFK reborn... I'm gonna start screamin and bustin' stuff.
It was obviously time to get my head on straight.
So yesterday, to that end, I spent a couple hours out back just tryin' to clear out all the cobwebs.
I'd started out thinking I'd buck some lengths of already downed trees to feed the splitter, but my "backwoods muse" intervened and I ended up starting to clear a rough road to the western edge of the woods. It's my biggest premeditated solo project to date and a saner man might have just called in a dozer... but we'll see how it goes.
I cleared about 50 yards (yeah... screw metric) of mostly scrub in two hours and apart from a few creaky joints, I feel like a new man. I figure I've got an 800 foot run to the fenceline and I'm looking to pop out near a huge oak that has broken off about 15 feet from the ground.
It's a crisp, sunny day and I've got 2 pristine chains, 10 litres of premix and a Lewis and Clarke bug up my ass.
We'll see where I end up today.
Blogging will be light.
**********
UPDATE: 16:30 and I'm back
So I get down to the woods and there's a bit of a deadfall crowding the road. All the leaves have dropped off the trees, it's a little weird to be able to see for hundreds of feet... and a rare chance to be able to scope out the topography.
I decide I'm gonna do a quick cleanup before proceeding to the new road. There's a couple of big aspens that appear to have been blown over about 40 feet off the road and the resulting tangle will be a bugger to sort out if I leave it 'til spring.
Three hours later... the mess is all cleaned up into three largish brush piles and the trees are bucked into lengths. Now that's good news for the rabbit-tat... but I don't have much energy left to extend my road.
I settle for a little housekeeping... clearing out yesterday's leftover stumps and call it a day.
It was the perfect day for cutting though... sunny, bright and cool enough to keep up a steady rhythm. A couple hours in, Mrs Neo, on her daily constitutional... showed up with much-appreciated sandwiches and fluids.
And cutting with a new chain is such a pleasurable experience. The saw almost pulls itself through the logs, like it has a mind of its own.
Anyway, I should be able to run the truck about 60 yards back off the clearing and into the woods tomorrow. It may not seem like a lot, but you're carting tools and gas around... every little bit helps.
All in all, a very satisfactory afternoon.
*
