(Note: This is the fourth instalment in a series. The first post started with a hurricane that hit near the cottage and caused a tree from the spare lot beside my cottage to fall across the road, a second post showing some of the wood from said fallen tree, as well as some branches from a birch tree previously and intentionally trimmed by a professional lumberjack being cut up and piled in the wood shed, and a third post talking about cutting up one of two full birch trees felled by the lumberjack.)
This past weekend I was up at the cottage yet again, and putting aside the completely expected clouded over skies, we had remarkably warm and generally very pleasant weather at the cottage, rather uncharacteristic for the month of November in those parts. But … this gave me what I completely expect will be my last opportunity this year to use my chainsaws at the cottage this year; in fact, I will be bringing both of my chainsaws back to the city to store them in the city for the winter.
However, I did manage to cut up the trunk of the second birch tree that was felled last year by a real lumberjack:
I proceeded to start cutting up the tree trunk into four-log lengths, scoring cut marks and cutting through completely every fourth cut (in this case on the left):
Soon, I decided to cut the lengths into two-log lengths, to make it easier to move the logs to the wood pile, especially the lowest part of the trunk which is the thickest and heaviest:
Here’s another length cut into lengths of two logs instead of four:
Here’s a closeup of one of the complete cuts:
Here’s a view on a complete cut in which you can obviously see that the log has been cut through:
Then I moved the first two-log length of the tree trunk to the pile of wood at the wood pile, waiting to be cut up next summer:
Here’s the space left open after moving the first double-log length of wood:
Here’s where the tree trunk had been after all the sections of wood had been moved to the woodpile:
Here’s the back of the woodpile with all the logs to be cut up next summer and chopped up:
In the meantime, I left the crowns of the two trees where they lay, including the thick branches, in which I absolutely am interested in keeping:
Here’s the front of my woodpile, after having filled up the wood box in the cottage before leaving this past weekend:
Here’s a closeup view of the woodpile after filling up my woodbox before leaving the cottage this past weekend:
Of course now to get closer to why I play lumberjack — besides the pleasure I derive from the activity in its own right — a view of the wood box inside the cottage, filled just before leaving this past weekend:
And here’s the real money shot: The high-efficiency, slow-burning, wood stove in the cottage burning wood I cut during one or more previous seasons:
At the end of the weekend, I set up the fireplace for next time:
Despite the mild weather this weekend, heating season is on!