Hello once again from the heart of cold country. It is soon to turn cold hear. The temperature will soon follow the leaves and fall.Undoubtedly so too will the snow. I have been putting off cutting firewood this year. We are trying to sell our property so that we can be closer to Nyle's grandparents. But with a down economy, selling a house is not an easy thing to do. On top of that, we are not the motivated by money home owner with our financial backs against the proverbial wall as most sellers are. So we aren't really negotiating on the price...much. We do have someone that is interested, but I am not holding my breath. So a few days ago I decided it was time for me to start looking for a place to cut some firewood. My brother sold his place this past month so that I had to find another place to get my wood. As it turns out there is a place about 300 yards from my house that was cut off a few years ago and I noticed it looked like it still had several tops that could be turned in to firewood with ease. If you can call cutting wood with a chainsaw, hauling, splitting, and stacking wood "with ease". This place is very conveniently located to me. In fact Nyle and I walked down to a trailer that sits in the middle of all this cutoff woods, and spoke with a tenant who is renting the place off of the owner. So we went over and knocked on the door and it just so happened this person was home. A nice fellow about my age, maybe just a little older. A nice conversation ensued and I told him my desire to cut some of the tops laying all around his trailer. Well, he said that I would of course have to speak with the owner of the land, but he thought the owner would not mind. He gave me a name and I thanked him for his time and walked back home. As I was making the trip I recorded the owners name in my phone audio recordings. I have a great memory, it's just really short! I looked up the owner and phoned the gentleman> I knew he would be an elderly man. Google not only came up with his name, address, and phone number, but also his age. The owner said he had no problem with me cutting all that I wanted. All right! After I had charged the battery in my truck, ran to town and got some gas for the truck, and chainsaw gas, which involved having to have my van jump started...twice! I was back home and ready to work. I got this all done and ready to go to the woods about the time Nyle takes his afternoon nap. I hated to go with out him, as he really enjoys going with me and watching me, and helping me, when he can. But I thought it might be better to go by myself and just see how the place was and if it was conducive to have Nyle along. There are some big dogs in the neighborhood and I dd not know if they would show up. At any rate I went on over there and stopped in and spoke with the renter and let him know I had spoken with the owner and had obtained permission to cut. I asked about how he felt about that, if the noise would bother him, and let him know I would not cut too early in the day, or too late at night so as not to disturb him. He said not to worry about it that he hardly heard them back there when they logged it off originally. That was nice. I also asked him about here the property lines were so as to be sure and not start cutting on someone's land that I had not garnered permission to cut on. He was kind enough to give me the fifty cent tour and gave me a pretty good idea how the lines ran. I thanked him and went on back behind his place where the "woods" started, or where they used t be. I scored a big old red oak that was doughty at the trunk, but had good wood in it further up. I started cutting it up. It was such a good piece I did not finish getting it chunked completely up. I still managed to have a full load of firewood on my Isuzu. So you know this was a pretty good start, and a great find for my firewood this year. My chainsaw ran great! I am really impressed with my $100.00 chainsaw. I bought it last year and it ran great. I pulled the rope maybe 6-9 times and she fired right up this year, and ran flawlessly. Now get ready for this... it's a McCullough Chain Saw. I never ever would have bought that brand as my childhood memories of this brand of chainsaw were of my dad saying, "NEVER BUY A MCCULLOUGH CHAINSAW #!&*$&^!!!! He had one of those that was made in the 40's, out of solid steel billet and weighed about a 100+ pounds. And it never ran, except on the hottest days when you really did not want to run a saw. They make them better now. This model has the "bigger chain" on it. It's supposed to be a "real chainsaw" and not the cheap Walmart, Kmart, Big box cheapy junk. Evidently McCullough makes a cheapy model, but this is the real "lumber jack" version. So buyer beware, they aren't all the same. However, I really like mine, as much as a man can like a chainsaw. If you know what I mean...
Tomorrow I am going to finish unloading the truck. Then I am going over to my brothers house, the one he just sold, and pick up the freezer that has been storing the pig I had butchered earlier this year. It still has a lot of that pig in it and I really must bring home the bacon tomorrow. After that I might cut another load of wood if it is not raining. I have included a vid of Nyle and his Grampa fixing a flat tire. Note how well Nyle does with handling the wrenches. He loves doing this kind of stuff. Well I got to get. See you later....
