SawWalking...

I'm about a month behind schedule, and last two years' knee problems really didn't help, but I'm workin' hard to catch up.

Back when I was young, My uncle, grandfather and I would hop in the truck, and there'd be various cutting tools in the back.  We'd drive down the road a few miles to a pasture area, and drive along the fencelines, looking for limbs that'd fallen on the fences.  It was a regular maintenance task that any midwestern cattleman would attend to, particularly after a windstorm, so that any fence damage would be found and repaired.

Fast forward 50-something years, and while I don't have cattle or fences, I take a few hours every spring, and again in mid summer, and then later in fall, to go 'SawWalking'.

A friend of mine heard my wife use the term, he asked me... "What is SawWalking?"

So, in the early spring, there's winter deadfall, and there's limbs that've broken, but not made it all the way down.  During the early summer, there's rapid overgrowth, low hanging limbs, nasty stuff, thorny stuff... in general just messy stuff.  In the mid-late, there's saplings popping up everywhere... and in the fall, there's whatever's left. 

SawWalking is when you sharpen up the blade, add oil and gas, and go for a walk with the little chainsaw, and all the saplings, all the volunteers, all the deadfall, all the low limbs (the ones that whack you when you're mowing)... cut them off.

Then I push all the cuttings into a pile, roll the pile onto a tarp, put a chain through the thickest pieces, spring-clip the tarp to the chain, and connect to the little tractor, drag it back to a burn pile.

This year was the year that all my spruce trees (planted 14 years ago) were tall enough to wear short skirts...  all the low branches got cut off, so that I could get the mower around 'em, and so critters couldn't hide under the low limbs... it's been a long time since I could keep the area under the conifer dresses clean, and now I can just drive the ZTR right up close.  I get a little sap on my sleeve, but they look so much better now that there's no mulberry shoots or weeds coming up underneath.

I made a self-propelled work platform out of an old detassling machine... it's got walkway wings down the sides and across the top, so I can drive it by the big trees, and lop back any limbs that're hanging way out and sagging low... makes it easy to trim them off overhead structures (roofs, etc), as well as repair gutters, sliding barn door tracks, and stuff.  Not exactly 'walking', but  that's the same idea.

SawWalking has become somewhat of a spiritual reminder, that one must regularly look at a situation, and do what it takes to cut back the overgrowth in life...

A buddy of mine needed help getting his yard mowed... weather circumstances got him in a bind, and it was really deep, so I took my machine over and helped him out... he's got a big lot, and there's downed limbs, mullberry shoots, all kinds of other weedy brushy things that've become obstructions to easy maintenance.  I told him that in a few weeks, I was gonna come back and go SawWalking... and when I did, I was gonna bring my other little saw, so he could do it too.

After it's done, it oughta look and feel much nicer, and easier to maintain.

Anybody else go SawWalkin' lately?

Late??  Whaddy'a mean, Joe??  It was only 10:30... I went to bed EARLY... usually I'm workin' on stuff 'till 1 or so... and up at 6...

So there's some saws that are good for walkin', and some AREN'T.  The Stihl 038, Shindaiwa 575, and MS660 are all great saws, but NOT for SawWalkin'... too much 'beast'.  Little trimmy saws are best for most things.

My 'latest' walkin' saw is a conglomeration.  Friend had an unfortunate incident and wound up rolling over a tractor (nobody on it, nobody hurt), but he had a Stihl MS-170 on a scabbard mount, and it, and another saw got messed up a bit.  The bar on the 170 got bent, he took it off and put on another old bar he had, tried to run it, and it started fine, then had no power.  I pulled it down for what I suspected was carb work, but looked in the exhaust port and found the piston and ring scored up bad... some crud apparently got in the exhaust backwards and wound up getting into the cylinder.

My initial thought was toast... went looking for prices on replacement piston/cylinder, and found that to be excessively costly.  I did see a complete import long-block... piston, cyl, crankcase, seals, bearings, rod... for $45... so I took a chance.  Wasn't exactly same... instead of the MS170's bore/stroke, it was the MS-180's... a couple CCs larger.  Good compression, finish quality good enough.  I cleaned out the muffler, carb job, put on a new 14" bar and chain (0.050 rather than the original 0.043") and all new fuel and oil lines, pump, and a real NGK plug... Some guys don't like the tool-less adjust feature, but I LIKE it, so I found one online and put it on this saw... so with all that, now I guess it's an MS-170 "Magnum".  It's been doing great, it runs and cuts just like my MS-180... it carries around easy on foot, and hangs on the ROPS scabbard nicely... with two spare chains hanging in wait.

And my yard is looking a little better every day.  I got a row of lilac bushes that need to have the dead pieces cut out, and there's probably a hundred sapling maples and mulberrys left to knock down...

Routine event at our wooded and overgrown acreage. Most of the dead, fallen, or overgrowth is cut back and the larger, usable pieces dragged to the fire pit to be made into firewood for the dogs, marshmallows, s'mores, or open rotisserie cooking that goes on over that pit. Of course that fire pit serves as the focal gathering spot, so we have included a couple of "Liar's Benches" around it. We have 2.5 acres up front that is kept groomed and manicured with the balance of just over 27.5 acres left natural and undeveloped. This is where we draw the "fuel" from.

As of last year started to bulldoze a road to the back from the front so have some large trees down and "seasoning" now. There is almost 12 acres in the back that is flat and we are going to put this into hay for feeding animals, but no access now due to lay of the land. Family project so will be a bit drawn out but that's alright by us. Two Stihl saws and one a Sears branded manufactured by "Roper" many years ago. All start well and have spare chains at the ready.