Day 185

When I can’t help out with a project the way I feel I should, I feel deflated. I am often insecure about my ability to help with different improvement projects and it is somewhat emasculating to not be able to adequately support those doing me a favor. There is a certain amount of pride in being able to accomplish a task but an equal if not larger amount of frustration when I am not able to help due to lack of ability or understanding.

Being an educator, I knew the way to help me improve myself in this area is to educate myself. 

With a need to move lots of trees, I knew that education would need to come quickly. 

I reached out to my sawyer friends and set up a time to get an initial lesson in using a chainsaw. About a year before I set up this lesson, I purchased a chainsaw. It just collected dust in the barn. It felt good to get it out of hibernation and put it to use. 

Our first lesson focused on the equipment. We discussed crucial equipment like bar oil, a squench, a blade sharpener, and 50:1 mix. We also discussed the importance of a helmet, eye and ear protection, chaps, and heavy duty footwear. Then, we practiced the safe and secure way to start up the chainsaw.

Then, using a stack of logs that will hopefully be transformed into our nature play area, I learned a lesson in tree cookie making. 

After getting a few practice cuts in, we discussed three stages in taking down a tree: felling, limbing, and bucking. Felling is cutting a tree so it falls down. Limbing is removing the branches off the main trunk. Bucking is cutting the fallen tree into sizable pieces to move it. I would need to become familiar and adequate at all three of these areas with the amount of work ahead of me in our wooded areas.

I appreciated the lesson and was excited to keep the education moving. My educator wanted me to practice consistently starting and using the saw to “get to know it” before we would move into more advanced lessons.