When we first got to our new homestead and the movers had come and gone, we went outside to check out all of our new trees. There were a lot. Having come from a state where green and various trees are not in abundance we began the process of figuring out what they were, if any had wood of value and which ones would have to come down.
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The first one we noticed was back on the property a little ways, about 16″ in diameter and a hard, old white oak. It was also dead and leaning, so it seemed like a good idea for us to remove that one first.
There are a lot of things we learned before we came out here. Gardening, cooking, animal husbandry, goat milking …yep, we wanted to learn it all but we could only do what we had access to in the city, in an apartment.
How to use a chainsaw was not something we had ready access to. We’d seen it done on TV. Does that count? Well, no. It really doesn’t. Take my advice. If you think you can use a chainsaw because you’ve seen it on television and understand the concept of felling a tree, you don’t know what you’re doing. Practice on something smaller and less likely to make a mess first.
We went over to Lowe’s, which has become a major stop for us as we get the things we need for the homestead and shopped for a chainsaw. Having never used one before, we went with something we thought we could both manage. It was a Poulan, 16″ bar, not too small, but certainly small enough for my out of shape arms. We got the oil and gas combination we needed to start it and came home.
Never in my life have I had that much trouble getting something to start. Good Lord! I read all the instructions, put in gas, put in oil, added bar oil, put it on the ground, locked the blade and pulled …and pulled and pulled and pulled. It would burst to life, idle for about 7 seconds, sputter and die. It did this so many times that I honestly thought my shoulder was going to revolt. Finally, after two days, we gave up and took it back.
I actually own and use a 2-stroke Husqvarna Weed Eater and I love it. It has always been a good, consistent machine that starts on the first pull. We decided, as our chainsaw was going to be something we would use frequently, we should buy something more expensive. The thinking here was that it would be better built. You get what you pay for, right? We have had good luck with Husqvarna, so we went with that. Returned the Poulan and brought the Husky home.
We were ready to start chopping down trees. We filled it with gas/oil, greased the bar, pulled back the blade lock and pulled. Nothing. Pulled again. Nothing. Three hours later, still nothing. I had already been inside to look online and try to figure out what the heck was wrong. Seriously, a nearly $300 machine should not be this hard to start. We had no idea so off we went, back to Lowe’s. They gave us a rather dubious look to say the least. Honestly, what on earth were we doing to the freaking chainsaws? They called someone to the front who absolutely knows how to work a chainsaw and he took it outside. He pulled and pulled and pulled and …ha! Nothing. They decided it was just a lemon and replaced it.
When we got home, the new saw started up on the first pull! Yay! Now we could cut down that tree. My husband, who is a wonderful human being with exactly zero experience felling trees decided he would do it. Seriously, how hard can it be, right? Cut a notch so it will fall –> that way, then come in from the other side and bam …downed tree. Well, no. Not really.
What I found out later, from someone who actually does know how to use a chainsaw and fell trees is that you have to look at the top of the tree first to see which way it leans naturally. If it’s toward the way you don’t want to go, attach a come along to pull it back the other direction. Then, clear the lower branches and anything on the ground around the tree. Check the diameter of said tree to see if your chainsaw is even capable of taking down that size. For the record, 16″ bar vs 16″ diameter white oak …no. Not even remotely capable. Then, you check to make sure there is no wind, or if there is, that it is blowing in the direction you want the tree to fall. Once you do all that, and you’ve decided where you want it to fall, then you put on some freaking safety gear and cut a notch in the fell direction. A big notch. A notch that runs a solid 1/2 to 3/4 of the tree’s diameter and is good and wide. Then walk around to the other side and come in straight to the notch and “TIMBER” it should fall where you want it to.
My husband decided, after several seasons of watching ‘Mountain Men’ that this could not possibly be that hard. He went out, fired up the chainsaw and what had to have been 45 minutes to an hour later, was still sawing away at that freaking tree. It had taken so long that I wandered outside to see what he was doing. I wish I had taken a photo of that teeny, tiny notch he had managed to work into that tree. Y’all, it was about 2″ wide. What amazed me, however, is that he was using his upper body strength to “saw” with the chainsaw. I stopped him before he broke the chain and the kickback hit him in the face.
“Honey, the chain moves on its own, you don’t need to saw with it.” My husband is many things, but patient is not one of them. If he feels like he’s doing it right, then he is going to get pissed off if you offer suggestions. Anyone else would find that irritating. I find it endearing, but then, I’m used to him so I generally ignore it. He did what he always does when told he was not doing something right. He handed the chainsaw to me.
Well …okay. I’m the first to admit that I had no idea what I was doing. Not even a tiny clue. I understood the general operation of a chainsaw, but that was it. I also knew that his notch was not big enough and that he should be going through the tree and not shaving it off in vertical pieces like he had been for an hour. I, like my husband, do not have a great deal of patience. I do try, but it’s a challenge on the best of days so I took the chainsaw and given that he had a notch in the felling side, I moved to the other. Right? That’s what you want.
The sound of cracking was louder than just about anything I’ve ever heard up close. It was coming down!!! Oh CRAP! I had no idea this tree was so freaking large. I mean, the trunk size should have been my first clue, but the actual reality of a tree that size falling was awe-inspiring.
Of course, it went the wrong way. We watched in fascinated horror as it leaned, swayed and then fell right on the shed.
Not one of my proudest moments.
I grant you, it could have been worse. You can’t see it, but there is a car not very far from the top of that tree. Our house is right there too, so all in all, yeah, could have been much, much worse. Everyone came out uninjured. No cats were killed. Might even have taken out a couple of the mice in our shed, so as much as I hated seeing it smash the shed, I was glad it was on the ground and my family was still intact.
We decided that was enough homesteading for one day, cleaned up the general area of fallen branches and went inside.
The next day, having shaken off the shed getting killed by a tree, we went to work on clean up. This, more than anything, would show us how unprepared we were to work with a chainsaw.
We started with the main trunk which was still attached by a small broken 2″ or so of wood. That, actually, went pretty well. Cut the broken bit and step back to let the tree fall and settle. Once it had stopped moving, we checked in the shed to see where we could cut it to have pieces fall outside that we could move. Did I mention the tree was a white oak? It was heavy. We approached the clean up with a bit more respect for both the chainsaw and large trees.
We still had no idea what we were doing. Sigh. We got about halfway through the first log when the chain managed to bog down and get pinched. I went back inside to look up 1. what we did to make this happen (because it was absolutely our fault) and 2. how to get the chainsaw out of the tree because it was stuck. Really stuck. The Internet, by this time, had become my friend.
Having looked it up and finding that it happens even to the most experienced of loggers from time to time, I felt a little better. We took the bar off, got an axe and had to physically cut that portion off to get the chain out. It took about three hours, but apparently exercise increases endorphins because we were feeling pretty good that we’d managed to figure it out on our own and moved on to the next large section of tree.
You will never guess what happened. Yep, got the chain pinched …again. It was about this time that my husband threw up his hands and swore off chainsaws altogether for the foreseeable future and got an axe. Which he used, diligently, for several weeks. On the bright side, he was getting more exercise than he’d had in years. When I got home from work the next week, he had managed to entirely remove the tree from the shed. We still had a massive hole and branches everywhere, but we did not have a tree in our shed.
Once we had the tree removed from the shed, it was simply down to cutting it into logs that we could use for all sorts of things. Fence posts, lumber, the possibilities were endless. I could make a lean-to and pens out of that tree. Having not used the chain saw for several weeks, my husband tried again. The starter rope got stuck. Yep, that’s right. He’d finally figured out how to work the damn thing when it broke. Again. We just don’t have the best luck with chainsaws, apparently.
I cannot begin to express to you to look we received when we went back to Lowe’s with what was now our third broken chainsaw. Thank goodness we had purchased the warranty. Mostly those things are useless, but in this one case, it was a very inexpensive blessing.
I gave up at this point. It apparently didn’t matter. Expensive machine or not, they were determined to break. I returned the broken Husky, bought something on clearance since, and it has now been alive on this homestead for several months. For the most part becasue my husband refuses to use it unless it is absolutely necessary.
My next order of business is to learn, slowly and with much smaller trees, to use it myself. Way on the back of the property, where a falling tree won’t hurt anything or anyone. I guess I will be the official chainsaw user in this family, though I suspect, once he sees me burning through a bunch of trees, my husband will want to try again. Here’s hoping.
If A Tree Falls in the Forest … When we first got to our new homestead and the movers had come and gone, we went outside to check out all of our new trees.
