Husqvarna 55 gas powered chainsaw, with a new chain bar and chain
Some of the work that made the work so expensive was that the chain bar and the chain were replaced — hence the “Beaver” brand on the chain bar. As such, the old chain bar and old chain were returned to me, and I haven’t thrown them out, at least not yet:
Old chain bar and chain in my chainsaw’s carrying case
Here’s a small can of premium pre-mixed gas I bought a couple of years ago, and I started using this weekend, at least as a mix with the old gas mix I still have on hand to get rid of it:
Premixed premium chainsaw fuel
I have also been using Stihl-branded biodegradable chain oil for years, in the hopes of reducing the contamination on my property a bit:
Stihl biodegradable chain oil
Once I fired up the chainsaw, it worked like a charm cutting the wood — especially with a new, factory sharpened sawing chain!
First cut of the trunk of one of the felled birch trees
… and here’s a view of the sawdust:
Sawdust from the chainsaw
Here is the trunk, cut into sections of four logs for the fireplace — the pre-cuts for which can be seen on the left:
Trunk cut into sections, with pre-cuts for the individual logs
Here’s a bit closer up of a cut between sections, and the pre-cuts for some logs:
Trunk cut into sections, with pre-cuts for the individual logs
This is the “first” section of four logs, which is also the heaviest, being the lowest part of the tree and the widest, and after the “second” section had been moved away toward the wood shed …
First section of tree trunk, with second section moved away
… and here is the “second” section piled up against the wood shed. On the right behind the tree and the shed, the “first” section can still be seen:
First section of trunk brought to the wood shed
Here’s the view in the woods after a few sections were moved over to the wood shed …
Ground after a few sections of the trunk had been moved away
… along with a view of the growing pile of logs to cut and chop next year:
Heavy logs piled up against the wood pile
Having had a bit of amusement for the afternoon, having somewhat developed a few sore muscles, and having a cooking project to which to attend, I stopped for the day.
The following day, I took out my Ryobi battery-powered chainsaw, with a 7.5Ah battery borrowed from my lawn mower:
Ryobi battery powered chainsaw taken out
The “first” section, the heaviest one, was cut into two, two log lengths, because I found said section of the trunk so heavy that even rolling it, let alone raising one end in order to pile it against the wood pile, was extremely difficult:
Heaviest section of trunk cut in two in order to just allow it to be moved
The two pieces and the rest of the cut up sections were moved to the wood shed, leaving the area where the tree trunk had been empty:
Area where there had previously been tree trunk sections that had been moved
… while nearby, the other birch tree that had been felled last year …
Second birch tree trunk to be cut up at another time
… and the crowns from the two trees, which were (intentionally) felled toward the same area …
Crowns from two trees to be cut up at a later time
… will have to wait for another time, be it before the first snowfall, or next year after the snow melts and the water drains!
Oh … another tree or long branch that came down at the same time was brought over to the wood shed:
Long branch or extra tree picked up and moved to wood pile
In any case, I will have plenty of logs and other wood to cut up and chop next summer!
Piled up wood to be cut up next summer to be eventually placed on the wood pile
During my holidays at the cottage this year, I had the usual plans: A lot of relaxing, maybe a bit of boating, possibly some cycling on some nearby cycling trails, definitely a lot of cooking especially at the beginning, mostly of desserts to be frozen for eating during my stay at the cottage, and of course, some wood splitting to fill up the wood pile. No matter that said wood shed is already three quarters full after last year’s work and what I did burn over the winter.
View of my wood shed that is already three quarters full
Side view of my wood shed that is already three quarters full
As you can see, I already had a lot of wood on my woodpile.
Part of my plans, nonetheless, involved cutting up a couple of big birch trees which we had had felled by a real lumberjack last autumn, because the trees were liable to fall any time, possibly the wrong way.
One of two birch trees felled on the property
I also had some branches and pieces of another birch tree we’d asked the real lumberjack to trim, for fear that said branches would eventually tear down our electrical and phone entry to the cottage:
More wood ready to be cut up, before I would start cutting up the felled trees
Early on during my vacation, I met friends at a flea market somewhat nearby to the cottage, and afterwards I welcomed them at the cottage for an afternoon meal and visit. However, that day, 21 July 2026, we had a little bit of weather at the cottage (here’s my archive).
My friends were ready to pack up anyway as it was starting to rain heavily, and there had already been a few rounds of lightning and thunder at that point. As it turns out, they had to drive through the worst of the weather!
19:45 power return a mere couple of hours after the storm;
to noon on the following day;
to noon on the second day after the storm;
to still noon on the second day after the storm, but because crews had “finished” a lot of the work in the grouping around my address and the number of affected clients had dramatically dropped, it seemed that on said second morning, a work crew hadn’t yet been assigned to fix the branch of wires my cottage was on.
But again, I’m getting ahead of the story.
During the storm, I heard a tree fall; I figured it came from our spare lot beside the cottage. As it turned out, it was indeed from our spare lot, and it fell onto the road!
After the storm had passed, I went out onto the road to investigate, particularly since I could hear other people talking, and in fact said persons were walking down my driveway.
On the road, we found the following:
Fallen tree on road
Fallen tree on road
Fallen tree on road
As can be seen above, people were hoping to pass, and the person who usually deals with events such as this had appeared on site and began to cut up the tree, in order to clear the way.
Tree being cut up
Tree being cut up
Tree being cut up
Cut up tree placed on the side of the road, for later, collection of the long pieces for milling, and cleanup of the rest
The power came back on on 20260723 at about 11:35. As of this writing, we’re still waiting onUpdate 20260724: According to La Presse (here’s my archive) (yeah it’s in French, deal with it) and CBC news (here’s my archive) Environment Canada Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) to announce whetherhas confirmed that it was indeed a tornado.
At this point, this story is going to take a bit of a detour.
During the power outage, I learned that my two Ryobi 7.5 Ah batteries for my lawnmower, using a Ryobi converter, can each power my cottage fridge for a bit over an hour on a full charge.
Ryobi 7.5Ah battery from my lawnmower on an inverter, which was used to power the fridge
To state what may be obvious, I had to protect two weeks’ worth of food and groceries and already-done baking in the fridge and freezer.
Fridge full of food (photo taken after power restoration)
After the storm but long before the power came back on, I learned from people with whom I’d spoken on the road, that the effects of the storm was worse but a kilometre or two north of me. I didn’t drive there, but I hear that it was like a disaster zone and would take several days to a week or more to repair everything.
Stories from neighbours convinced me to embark mid afternoon on a folly of a trip to secure a generator, something I could not fully convince myself that I’d need after a hopefully short period of time.
I went down to a nearby city (Lachute) to get a generator for the fridge … but between gasping at the prices, trying to figure out what I’d do with a generator after the power came back (or after I evacuated if it were to be too long), and remembering that I used to have an inverter for my car which I had used before to power the same fridge, I decided to buy a new inverter instead. Immediately prior to leaving on the folly of a trip, I brought with me my lawnmower batteries to recharge at the community centre as a backup plan, since I had also learned that the power had already been restored there.
Inverter meant to be attached to a car battery
On the way back to the cottage, I stopped at the community centre, and I spent about two and a half hours at the centre charging my two lawnmower batteries, and then I made it back to the cottage at approximately 8pm.
As it was starting to get darker (and outright dark by 9pm) I found myself a bit befuddled and I couldn’t quite grasp how to get the inverter to work; as such, I was pleased with myself that I had spent the time earlier to charge my lawnmower batteries, and one was set to work to get the fridge going for another hour or so before the battery drained, and in the process I also went to bed.
The next morning, I managed to get the purchased inverter working perfectly on my car engine, and the fridge was running for a bit over two hours before the power came back on.
At this point, I had a couple of priorities:
take a bath, which I couldn’t do during the power outage because the water system is a private system on the property dependent on electricity, putting aside the possibility of taking a swim in the lake beside the cottage — and when the power came back on, I was pleasantly surprised that the water in the hot water tank was still relatively hot after roughly 42 hours of no power, and therefore requiring little time for it to get back to temperature;
and wash the dishes from my entertaining on Tuesday!
Dishes from the previous two days, including a large number from my visitors on Tuesday, after washing
… And at this point, the little detour has come back to the wood story.
After finishing up the dishes, I could tell that there was activity going on on the road where the tree had fallen: I ended up helping the person who maintains the roads clear up the tree that he’d cut up a couple of days earlier, mainly during the part when he was shredding the branches less than 3″ thick.
I asked what he was going to do with the rest of the wood, viz. the branches larger than 3″ but which were not the main trunk wood that he had recovered; I already knew from a couple of days earlier that he’d said he’d take the main part of the tree trunk so that he could season the wood, and then mill it and dry it out for lumber. As such, I said I’d take the rest — which was substantial — that he would have otherwise driven to the local ecocentre (here’s my archive) (yes, it’s in French, deal with it.)
Here is a photo of the branches packed into my car:
Branches loaded into my car
A little note at this point: The person who was leading with clearing the road noticed my car filled with the wood, and “strongly suggested” (jovially, though with an air of being serious along the lines of “they may feature your story, and perhaps even give you a credit”) that I take photos in order to send to the manufacturer to tell a story of how I use my car … whether I end up doing this remains to be seen, but in the meantime, I mounted this post. š
And, now I have this pile of wood to cut up to place in my wood shed … while you can see on the left of the photo, just behind the propane tank, one of the birch trees that was felled last year, that at this point will at best be cut into logs for seasoning for another year, and hopefully be kept somewhat out of winter snow and spring wetness!
Now larger pile of wood to be cut up and split
A second post “Iām a lumberjack ā¦ ā Part Deux” was mounted to showcase the actual woodcutting and splitting, and stacking of the split wood, that for the purposes of this post, are left to the implied and unseen.
And as for the rest of the Monty Python sketch … well it’s as old as I am, and it’s still funny!
