Chainsaw Story-Bigger is Better Even If you Are A Girl

I am working feverishly to get all the fallen trees bucked and stacked around here before winter hits. I'm still working on the trees that fell in the dastardly windstorm of June 2009. I'm trying desperately to catch up. It hasn't helped that I've sprained my darned ankle twice this year. Kinda put a crimp in my limp. I was starting to stress out about these trees because they have been down awhile and they need to get bucked and stacked before they rot. The thought of losing them kills me because these babies keep Koty and I warm all through the harsh Montana winters.

After the storm

When I first got here, eight years ago, I was familiar with chainsaw work (I had had a few eucalyptus at my home in Monterey I'd cut up for firewood) but nothing on the scale of forty acres of forest.  Upon arrival I promptly ventured into the local chainsaw shop to pick up a new chainsaw. I thought I'd better get one that was, what I thought, girl size. I chose, was guided to,  the Stihl MS 250 with a 16 inch bar. It seemed like a size that I could handle. And, I could handle it too except that it was a witch to start and took forever to cut through a tree trunk of any size. In fact it was so tough to start I was nearly worn out from pulling before I made my first cut.  And when the temperatures got down in the twenties and thirties, egad, I nearly couldn't make the grade. It sometimes got so bad that I'd literally get bruises on my hands from pulling. I thought "Wow you are a princess!"

The 250 was classified for cutting firewood and that was what I was doing so for nearly eight years I struggled with this saw. Oh, and did I mention I have a persnickety back? Leaning over a log holding a saw out in front of you is not a good back thing.

I'm pretty careful about the size of tree I attempt to fell because I work alone and you can get dead pretty darned quick if a tree falls on your head. They say that you just look for "the lean" and drop her that way. Well, let me tell you it ain't that easy. You can look at a tree from one side and think "OK, it's leaning that way." Then you go around to the other side and swear it was leaning another direction entirely. Bottom line, when I fell a tree it's more than likely to go the opposite direction from the one I intended. Needless to say I leave the felling of larger trees to the boys.

So, when the guys have come out, over the years, to drop trees for me I have marveled at the size of their chainsaws and the fact that they could just throw the saw out whilst holding the pull and those big dogs would just start right up. Me, I had to put my tiny chainsaw down on the ground and place my foot through the handle in order to start it. Not that I want to be a man mind you but I must admit I was jealous. I think I may have had chainsaw envy. I also envied the way those big chainsaws cut through a big trunk in a Minnesota  minute. It would take me and my 250 at least twice as long.

So, I struggled along for nearly eight years and I was able to keep up pretty good with what needed to be done. Then a windstorm back in June 2009 downed around fifty trees. Having to divide my time between photography and ranching I started to fall behind. Mind you I could hire all this work out except for the fact that this place is my baby and no one understands how to raise it better than I. I will keep doing it myself until I am no longer able. I have as much passion for this land as I do for my photography. When I die I hope they will find me out in my forest with my Nikon in my hand and a smile on my face.

I digress. Back to the chainsaw. So, I'm getting myself pretty worked up about not handling my forestry work. I decide to go to my chainsaw shop and check up on what it would be like to go a notch bigger. They showed me the Stihl 290 Farm Boss.

Stihl Farm Boss 290

The thing was three pounds heavier and it had a twenty inch chain. I thought "Well, maybe". But then I was worried about how tough it would be to start. I figured bigger, harder to start. We went out back of the shop and they let me give it a pull. It started right up but it had already been started so I said I'd sleep on it and come in for a "cold" start. I went back the next day and did a total cold start. The chainsaw started right up. In fact, it was much easier to start than the much smaller 250. I bought it on the spot.

I have been using the Farm Boss chainsaw now for several weeks and I am cruising through my wind fall like a jalopy. Yes, it is heavier but it's easier to start and cuts through a log in half the time. And get this, I can throw the thing and start it just like guys who know what they're doing! The net result is my back is much happier and so am I because I can now see I can keep up with Mother Nature, well at least for this go around.


And, gents, if I can handle this thing imagine what you can do!

©Kinsey Barnard

Extreme Weather & The Timber Terminator

Mama Mia! I don't know what has been going on in the rest of the country but the weather here in northwest Montana has been wild. Spring was downright cold and we had significant snow in June. July was the coolest in the six years we have lived here and now we've just come off a heat wave. The temperatures were in the high nineties and over one hundred down in the valley. For us'ens who don't like the heat it was time to hide in the house. Lucky for us insulation works as well in the summer as it does in the winter and our temperatures always drop down into the fifties at night. We just open all the windows at bedtime and close them up when the sun crests the eastern ridge. The house stays cool all day even when it's in the nineties outside.

Suddenly, in just a few hours, the heatwave ended. A storm brewed and we were back in the 50's during the day. It rained for two days straight. The rain was good because we have had a dry summer and the forest floor just crackled under your feet.



I find summer to be the least intriguing time to ply my craft as a photographer so I generally take off from serious photography to work on my ranch. Wood gathering is a big job for a girl and a dog. The "Timber Terminator" would be me. A nickname my neighbor gave me because he finds it rather amusing that a gal would take up the chainsaw and maul.



So, now the weather is behaving it's off to work we go! Actually, most of the timber we work on has already been terminated by Mother Nature. Round these parts they call it blow down or windfall and dead standing. The green trees we take are generally for management purposes. Taking the few for the greater good so to speak.



The darned things don't always fall in the most convenient places either and can be very tricky to work on without knocking yourself off in the process. Since Koty is my only workmate extra care has to be taken. Most people think I am a bit daft not only to be doing this work alone but to be doing it at all. The fact is I love working in the forest. I will only quit when I physically can't do it anymore.



Once the Ranger is full it's off to the chopping pile. Chopping and stacking wood is another chore I love. It must be the best aerobic exercise out there. I love looking out the window at the full and neatly stacked shed. I love the warm heat it provides which permeates the entire house. I love the energy bill, about $50 in the dead of winter when we are at home.



They say you have trouble sleeping as you get older. Well, Koty and I are both doing the hard court press on sixty and there are no sleepless nights around here. No need for Ambien or other pharmaceutical poison either.

Soon it will be time to be on the road again and photography will fill our every waking moment. But, for now, this is the work that fills our days. Mother Nature blesses us every day in every way and we are grateful beyond measure.

Be sure and check out The Liberated Photographer

Ciao for now!
Koty & Kinsey

©Kinsey Barnard