Today was chainsaw day.  We had a bad ice storm a couple weeks ago that flattened a lot of the county.  Some people were without power for over a week.  Luckily, I live near the center of town and power was restored here after just a day.  The day after the storm I went out, looked around the yard and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the damage was pretty minimal.  So I decided to go across the street and help out my neighbors, who had a lot of damage, mostly in the area they keep their horses.  After a few hours of that I came back home and went to get a nap.  I laid down, closed my eyes and heard a big crack.  I sat up fast and looked out the window in time to see an enormous section of the big tree in my front yard peel off and crash to the ground.  Amazingly, it hit nothing except my crab apple tree.  That would be the same crab apple tree that lost about a third of its branches in the summer when a different tree lost a big chunk in a thunderstorm and landed on the crab apple tree.

Anyway, because of the weather and holiday stuff, I've only been able to spend a couple hours cutting up the big chunk of tree in my front yard.  My wife took the kids to see her family for the weekend.  So without them underfoot and a surprising appearance by the sun in the sky, I finally got out there and started cutting.  And it was really slow going.  And then out of nowhere, one of my neighbors appeared, told me it sounded like my chain was dull and offered to sharpen it for me.  Which he did on the spot.  He even lent me a helmet with ear protection so I wouldn't go deaf.  And after that my chainsaw went through that tree like butter.  The difference was astounding.  Before that I thought I might get through a third of the debris.  After he sharpened it the rest of it came apart with next to no resistance.  That said, using a chainsaw is hard work and my back is now squawking in protest.  So I will spend the rest of the day in bed, watching movies.

And if anyone out there needs some firewood free, shoot me an email and I'll tell you where to pick it up.  I don't deliver.