| Chainsaws |
[Jan. 11th, 2006|10:36 pm]
wetkneefarm
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A few weeks ago, I finally came to the conclusion that it was time to move on from our baby chainsaw to a grown up chainsaw. The baby chainsaw was one that Mark found in the barn and cleaned and made new. It actually works very well, but as we learned when we went to several chainsaw stores on a date* yesterday, it's considered a "pruning" saw. Which means that it wasn't very nice to make Mark cut down big trees with it.... :-) Since we have a whole hillside which needs to be converted from cedar grove to orchard, a big saw is looking more and more essential.
So we're looking at other chainsaws. Big chainsaws. (One chainsaw store told us that someone had ordered a chainsaw with a 48" bar! The bar is the long part that the scary cutting bit goes on, for those who don't know chainsaws. That means that the bar was just a bit shorter than me. Kinda scary.) Stihl seems to be the brand of choice, and our current favorite is the Farm Boss (Model 290) with 54 cc and an 18" or 20" bar. With an 18" bar or larger, we can get a special sawmill attachment if we want for about $100 which will let us make rough boards out of the trees we cut down. Very enticing.
I looked through ebay today and actually made a bid on one. When I wake up tomorrow morning, I guess I'll know if we have a chainsaw...
* Yesterday was Mark's birthday, and we hit a bunch of chainsaw stores before I took him out to eat. It was one of my favorite dates --- what can be more fun than looking at Stihl chainsaws? Especially when the salespeople give me a slick, color book showing all of the chainsaws Stihl sells and their specifications. And when the salespeople show us the new easy-start function on some of the chainsaws where you just barely pull the cord rather than jerking it to make it start. They felt obliged to explain that this was a boon to old people and...pause...women. Then they took one look at my face and started backpedalling and apologizing. |
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