Stump Down

 My friend, Bug, came with her chainsaw today.

She and her husband grow hazelnuts and she uses her Stihl battery powered chainsaw in the orchard to prune.

I was in awe of that little Stihl.  Very little noise, since it runs off battery, and it cut through a huge maple stump.  Maple is hardwood at its hardest.  Rock hard.  Sure, it took a bit, but mainly because first she had to cut off the three burl peaks, that stuck up into the cat yard wire.  Some of the wood had grown into the wire.  She had also brought good tin snips, to cut away the wire.  Mine are really dull.

One of the three top knots grown into the cat yard wire.

She worked at getting those three top knots cut off, then through the stump at the base for almost three hours, before it fell, with a clunk and a slight roll.  That's with a 20 minute break for the battery to recharge.   The day was freezing and foggy when it was forecast to be sunny with near record highs (60).  She came dressed in her farm clothes, ready to get it done.

The chainsaw bar was far shorter than the diameter of the stump, at its base, where the wood was solid all the way through .  

I am lusting after a battery powered chainsaw now.  For what reason, since there are no more trees in the yard?  Good question.  Maybe to cut up all the wood laying around still in the yard, from this maple stump and the other one too.

That stump will lay there as a cat toy for now, until I can muster a way to cut it up and get it out.  

I patched the hole where the stump grew into the cat yard wire, from a roll but it is not a pretty sight.  Oh well, its at least functional again.  No holes, that I know of, but no I haven't let Phantom out of the bathroom yet.  Tomorrow I will.  I was tired after Bug left, laid down and fell asleep and it was dark when I woke up.  I'm not letting a little escape artist out to test the cat yard's security when I can't watch what she's up to.

My big week next week may not be so big.   I'm not so sure the woman with the ten unfixed cats inside her place is going to come through.  She hasn't picked up traps/carriers and is to start containing them Saturday.  She also has not returned a text asking when she intends to pick up carriers/traps.   I start thinking something happened, like a car wreck.   I always worry, when its a situation dependent on a person I don't know and that I can do nothing about, what if that person turns out to be a flake.  The worst of it would be for the clinic scheduled to fix them.  Hopefully my worry is unfounded.

Shaun White didn't place in his last halfpipe event.   He did ok, but fell on his very last run.  I thought that was a good ending to his story.   He had a couple of good runs before the final one.   Mikela whatever her last name is didn't fall at least on the Super G.  She didn't place either.  I also thought that was about right.  You win some you lose some.  It's a little ridiculous, laughable almost, really to think of anyone as losers or winners when they're like a split second apart from first place to last.   You could lean one way instead of the other and lose that split second or gain it.  Or your puffy jacket might lose you a split second some days.  I would think if you had some weight to you, I won't say outright fat, you'd go faster from increased mass.  If that is you were fit enough to make those tight turns and get down in that aerodynamic squat to glide.