Day 97

 I’ve never needed to own a chainsaw before. I’ve used one minimally. However, with plenty of dead ash trees throughout our land, it figured it would be good to have one around. Before I started impersonating a lumberjack, I figured I would reach out to those wiser than I in the art of tree removal. I reached out to a few people who were sawyer volunteers from my local Ice Age Trail chapter. They agreed to give me a few pointers and teach me the techniques to do some tree cutting both efficiently and safely. Unfortunately, though both of the gentlemen I connected with were retired, they were both very busy. Throw in my crazy schedule and finding a time for all of us to get together was a much more difficult task than I anticipated. Then, when we were finally able to coordinate our schedules, Mother Nature intervened and turned those plans upside down. 

The trees weren't going anywhere so I wasn't too concerned. However, part of our restoration plan was to improve the woodland areas of our land by removing dead trees and planting new ones. We wanted to clear a ton of trees from the dead ash stands so that we could attack and hopefully eradicate the reed canary grass infesting the areas where the ash trees once thrived. 

We also had some plans for the downed trees. We could use the trees to make a natural fence along the property line. We could develop a natural play area for our kids, our community, and of course our chickens. Speaking of chickens, some of the trees could be chopped up and used in the soon-to-be-developed outdoor yard. We also looked into ways to cut them down strategically to attract deer and other wildlife. We could collect an absolute ton of firewood for our nights of family firepits, s’mores, and a craft beer or two. Seeing how many trees we needed to take down, we might actually be able to do all of these things and much, much more.

Yet, while we tried to devise a plan to take down a ton of trees, we also had aspirations of adding so many more.