Empowerment by Chainsaw

I have a close friend, let's call her "Marilyn", who always talks about her acreage and having to chainsaw downed trees.  She's pretty much a Southern belle, and while I can envision her frying chicken and fixing mint juleps on the veranda, I've never been able to envision her running a chainsaw.  They're just so deadly.

I worked with a guy who pull started his chainsaw right into his chin...very ugly wound.  Very common in the ERs.  I have a great respect for cutting tools, and cutting tools with power?  Even more respect.

Last week, I had a crew of professionals climb and cut the trees in my back yard.  They are all professionally pruned and shaped and I'm hoping in a few years, my backyard shade will have fully recovered from the ice storm damage from two years ago.

While standing in the front yard, watching the crew feed all the limbs into the big chipper, the guy offered to (at a price!) trim my little trees in the front yard.  I asked him how he'd suggest doing it, but then turned it down.  Really.  It can be reached without even a ladder, and it's a baby tree.  We ought to be able to do that ourselves, right?

I had to go out into DH's hangar for something, and I saw our small chainsaw.  When I looked at it, I realized it was electric!  Not a pull start gasoline fed beast.  Electric is much more in my realm of possible yard equipment.  I thought about it for a few days and decided I'd try it myself.  I would get out the chainsaw and take down the limbs on the little trees.  I decided to channel Marilyn.

This morning appeared to be temperate and without a lot of wind, so I decided today was the day.  I dragged out the little chainsaw and checked the oil.  Full up.  Then I spent a great deal of time trying to find one of the five hundred extension cords I know we have... I finally found one I could reach and brought it around.  Then I hooked up the chainsaw and pulled the safety and the trigger.  And the little baby purred.

I approached the little Shumard Oaks with a plan.  I was going to try to do the smallest limbs on the smallest tree.  If I had any trouble with the chainsaw, I was going to put it all away and pretend some criminal marred that tree.  It was surprisingly easy to graze off the tiny limbs sprouting out.  I decided to take the first of the lower limbs.  I very gently pressed the chain against the limb and gave it a little pressure.  Then I realized that you had to really force the arm down.  Those arborists made it look so easy!

Since I used a wimpy little electric, I figured the payback was having to give it a little force.  It took me a couple of hours, but I got all three trees trimmed up to the level suggested by the experts.  I'm hoping I didn't kill them, but they are still standing at this time, so that's good news.

It was very empowering to hold a chain saw and brandish it at anyone who approached.  I had a kind of an Ash in "Army of Darkness" moment, thinking, "Alright. Who wants some?"

--Sandee Wagner