Big Pink Heart...

This has been the winter of wood getting. May be even the year of wood getting as I have cut firewood on at least 5 occasions in less than the past twelve months. That a good thing because I thought I had lost my chainsaw chops. Seems I have them back.

Some one asked me "what are chain saw chops?" Well just like you got some electric guitar chops, some tuba chops you got chain saw chops. It's what I imagine to be East Texas hipster slang and if you want to keep your chops up you have to use them.  Now I don't keep my tuba chops up like I should but that old chain saw had me huffing an puffing and I thought that I might be too old to cut like when I was younger. Turns out I was getting worn out cranking a 15 year old chain saw and with the purchase of a new 20" cut Ryobi  (I am now an official endorser) I can cut as well as ever.

This wood is from a tree that fell on the back of my property last spring. It leaned on my neighbors barbed wire fence landing right on top of a metal fence post but did not damaging the wire. Using the old saw I cleared it off the fence but wore down working with the cranky saw leaving the big trunk at a lean all on my property. I returned to the task this weekend cutting and splitting this wood for some friends. It's good stuff. 

This was some kind of oak. It has a colorful pink heart to it. It's nice to know it will burn keeping folks warm. That's what everyone should do with their heart, burn so it warms those around us. I would have never elected to cut this great tree as it stood but in the world a time comes for all things. It fell. I cut. It showed us something beautiful. 

I split all this wood myself and by then I was tiring. A careless hit with the maul and I cracked the handle. I'll have to replace it before I cut more. Here's a couple of photos of Morgan splitting wood when we cut downed trees on his property a few weeks ago. He has the same motion and good body mechanics as when he was a child and trying to split wood with this very maul.

So this is a story of how I got my chain saw chops back. I have a written agreement with my children to inform me if I start to loose my tuba or guitar chops to please tell me. And speaking of pink as Floyd said, ""Be Careful With That Axe, Eugene."."