Are They Amused?

We have 14 acres of heavily wooded property. That means thousands of trees.

I have, with a lot of work cut a bunch of trails through those woods. Other than the few open areas we have it's  pretty thick going and it took me quite a while of working on it a few snatched hours at a time.

But now there's trail maintenance.

That stuff out there just insists on constantly growing! Not that I'm terribly particular about "grooming" the trails to public-trail standards where they have to worry about some snowflake, that has no business being out on a trail in the first place, sueing because a stray twig made a mark on thier face, or a low branch messed up thier hair.

Yep, that’s a section of one of my trails

 Not exactly groomed to public-space standards

No, my trails are a little on the rugged side, requiring a lot of ducking, weaving, and high-stepping as I make my way along them (good for core strength and balance).

 I do wear a stiff straw hat which helps deflect pointy, scratchy things when ducking my head and bulling my way through. (And the wide brim sweeps some of the cobwebs away from my face too, a hazard of hiking just after dawn.)

This, the one up in the air, not the one laying on the ground, wasn't there yesterday. The trail is supposed to be right there in the middle of the photo. This thing is hanging across the trail just a little above crotch high and bent two smaller trees down with it.

But it seems like, with all that ground out there, a disproportionate number of trees fall right into my trails.

Maybe it amuses them.

Sometimes they very politely lay down neatly and I can just step over and leave them there to do what they do naturaly.

Sometimes I can just re-route the trail around them with a few minutes work with a heavy pair of loppers,

What I would have to cut through to re-route around this latest downed tree.

but other times, like this one, going around is a whole lota work and just not very practical.

When that happens I have to lug the heavy chainsaw back there, in this case over two ridges and through one valley,

and remove the obstruction from my original trail.

I swear that sometimes, when the saw is running and I have my hearing-protection on, I can almost hear a chuckle or two.

And, in case anybody caught that in the previous photo, yes. That's a battery powered chainsaw.

Back when I was clearing space for our barns and initially cutting trails I had a couple of gas-powered chainsaws, but unlike my brother I have a terrible time keeping small gas engines happy. And now that the barns are up, the trails cut, and I'm a little older, if theres any serious tree-falling to be done around here I'll call an insured and bonded arborist. So the troublesome gas saws moved on to new homes and I picked up a Greenworks 48V battery powered chainsaw for simple maintenance work.

Greenworks because that's the same brand, and the same 24V batteries, as the drill and impact-driver I carry in the Ranger.

So far I have never flattened the saw's batteries while doing my usual maintenance, which sometimes has included a significant number of cuts through 12" or larger logs. But if I ever do flatten the batteries, it was probably time to take a break anyway while the batteries charge back up.

Gas or battery, it's still a chainsaw. It still requires chain-oil and gets dirty and gummy when used.

Some reviewers of this particular saw complain about the chain-oil leaking when the saw is sitting on the shelf. Personally I suspect that they aren't cleaning the saw and all the collected gunk is wicking the oil out of the reservoir.

And yep, I'm that annoying guy that backs into parking spots and driveways so I'm pointed the right way when it's time to leave and puts the lawnmower away clean and full of gas so it's ready for next time.

I'm that anal fool that, everytime I use it, opens up the chainsaw and cleans it out, tops up the oil reservoir,

and hones up each and every tooth with a few swipes of the sharpening file

before putting it up for next time.

And I have never had an issue with leaking chain-oil.

Oh damn! Gota go.

One of the branches on that big live-oak keeps growing and has nearly blocked the trail over the pond's dam.

Later people!