I've never cut down a tree before, but since our primary source of heat is our woodstove, I need to learn how to produce fuel for it. I haven't actually bought a chainsaw yet, but I did inherit a small electric one, which if I use within 50 feet of the generator works ok for cutting up the tree into 16" to 18" sections.
Today I started by picking some trees that were in the way and needed to come down anyway and that were small enough that I couldn't cause any significant damage to anything (including myself) if something went wrong. As luck would have it, both trees were just out of reach of my 50-foot extension cord. So I used a hand saw. The standing dead tree was only about four inches in diameter and the living one was about six inches, so were easily manageable with a small handsaw. Both were birch trees about 30 feet tall or so.
After a minute or so of sawing the dead tree came down. Even with my little handsaw, I made two cuts--the first on the side I wanted the tree to fall and the second cut slightly higher from the back side. The live tree took a little longer because the moisture caused the saw blade to stick a little, and because my second cut was crooked. After the trees had fallen I dragged them over near the generator shed so I could use my electric chain saw to cut them up.
Using a chain saw didn't come naturally at first, but it wasn't hard to learn. I didn't naturally want to keep the bucking spike against the tree, but once I realized how doing that makes it so much easier to manipulate the saw and actually cut the wood, the bucking spike became my friend, and the work progressed much more quickly. I didn't get much firewood out of the dead tree because part of it was rotting. The live tree should give me almost one day's worth of heat on a not-too-cold day.
The trees are now stacked and drying out, getting ready for use next season. I've got a lot of work to do before next winter. Hmmm, I'm going to need a real saw.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Starting Our Garden
Memorial Day may mark the official start of summer for some, but for us it heralds the arrival of spring. Most people around here believe that the last frost has finally passed, and we sure hope so! Even for this area, it has been too cold much longer than usual. Night-time temperatures still dip into the upper 30s, though more often they are dipping only to the low- to mid-40s.
So this four-day weekend was a great time to start our garden, among many other tasks. Our garden is pretty small--only about six feet by ten feet--and took less than an hour to dig the old-fashioned way--with a garden spade. I chose this particular location mainly because it appeared to me that the area had been used for a garden before. I thought that maybe the soil had been amended before, might contain fewer weeds and such, and would be easier to dig. It was certainly easy to dig, and the soil appeared rich and dark. We'll have to wait and see about the weeds.
Our goal this year is simply to learn, so we didn't want a huge garden. It's been decades since I've worked in a garden. My wife has never gardened and isn't necessarily looking forward to it, but is looking forward to eating the produce.
We haven't quite decided what we will grow. We have decided that we will start with plants and not from seed, given the late start we are getting. We planted 4 "Sweet 100" grape tomato plants and one "Stripey" heirloom tomato plant which we will attempt to save seed from, if we can remember. We also planted an orange bell pepper plant and four cabbage plants. Next weekend we'll plant some seeds we had left from last year that we never got to use at our condo and see how they do: some kale, eggplant, and basil. If there is any room left, we may try a potato of some kind, and maybe a melon.
I think the really tricky part--even trickier than getting the plants to survive and produce--will be deterring the local wildlife from eating our food before we get to eat it. We got some netting that is supposed to annoy deer. I guess we'll see how effective that is. I'll also look into planting some plants that deer, and other animals in the area don't like and see how well that works.
So this four-day weekend was a great time to start our garden, among many other tasks. Our garden is pretty small--only about six feet by ten feet--and took less than an hour to dig the old-fashioned way--with a garden spade. I chose this particular location mainly because it appeared to me that the area had been used for a garden before. I thought that maybe the soil had been amended before, might contain fewer weeds and such, and would be easier to dig. It was certainly easy to dig, and the soil appeared rich and dark. We'll have to wait and see about the weeds.
Our goal this year is simply to learn, so we didn't want a huge garden. It's been decades since I've worked in a garden. My wife has never gardened and isn't necessarily looking forward to it, but is looking forward to eating the produce.
We haven't quite decided what we will grow. We have decided that we will start with plants and not from seed, given the late start we are getting. We planted 4 "Sweet 100" grape tomato plants and one "Stripey" heirloom tomato plant which we will attempt to save seed from, if we can remember. We also planted an orange bell pepper plant and four cabbage plants. Next weekend we'll plant some seeds we had left from last year that we never got to use at our condo and see how they do: some kale, eggplant, and basil. If there is any room left, we may try a potato of some kind, and maybe a melon.
I think the really tricky part--even trickier than getting the plants to survive and produce--will be deterring the local wildlife from eating our food before we get to eat it. We got some netting that is supposed to annoy deer. I guess we'll see how effective that is. I'll also look into planting some plants that deer, and other animals in the area don't like and see how well that works.
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| Our garden patch. I'll report later how effective the deer netting is. Under the netting are tomatoes, pepper and cabbage plants. |
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