Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Chainsaws and lifestyle blocks

We did buy a chainsaw. It wasn't the best one. The advice is for all tools for the block buy the best you can - especially the chainsaw as you will use it a lot. I think this is the right advice.
We had been going through our money quite quickly on many things and I couldn't bring myself to spend a fortune on a chainsaw. Yes we will probably buy another better one in the future when the purchases are less frequent. We did spend $500 so acquired not a super cheap model. There there was the $130 chaps to protect one's legs while using the chainsaw. If an ex-forester's wife recommended the chaps I was fully on board. We already had the face and ear protection equipment from the rotary slasher.
What substantially improved the chainsaw was breaking the chain after a few months use and replacing it with a Stihl one. The Stihl shop could sell it off the reel to the required length.
Using a chainsaw is not as simple as just slicing it through the wood. The ex-forester provided some useful lessons, tips and also some demonstrations on how to keep the chain sharp.
Nothing teaches better than getting your chainsaw stuck in a tree. The theory seems obvious about slicing so the branch falls open away from the chainsaw but sometimes putting the theory correctly into practice doesn't work out and the branch starts to close in and the chainsaw is jammed.
One incident took two of us to remove the chainsaw. One lifting the branch, the other holding the chainsaw so it didn't drop and carefully sliding it out as it came loose.
Then there was the large palm that was easy to cut through but took out the fence.

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5 Favourite Sights Seen

  • 1996 Watching tropical lightning turn night to day, outside a little wooden church in a small village in Sabah.
  • 2004 Flying down the Rainbow Valley at 8000ft in a cessna on a clear blue day.
  • 2003 Seeing and hearing Michael Schmacher rolling out of the pit garage in his Ferrari in Hungary.
  • 2009 Chancing upon 100 or more dolphins just off the Kaikoura Coast swimming around, jumping out of the water, doing somersaults and generally having fun.
  • 2006 Finding a pool at the bottom of a waterfall in the bush at Kaikoura that was full of playing baby seals.