Me and My Chainsaw

From my earliest memories, I can picture my dad running a heavy old Homelite chainsaw, killing trees with abandon. He used to fall trees for the first half of the day, then haul them to his mill all afternoon. I come from a long line of tree killers. These days talk like that is frowned on, even though we still need to cut down trees.
On my property, there were a lot of old trees that were at the end of their lifespan. They were constantly blowing down in the wind, and falling in the pond to lie there rotting. I purchased a new saw to clean up the mess. I picked out my favourite, a Stihl 026.
Stihl chain saws have been very reliable for me. My first Stihl lasted 9 years, during which I cut all of my firewood with it and even used it at work for a 4 month job slashing brush. I was so happy with it that when I wore it out I went and got another one, exactly the same. The dealership I had bought the first one from had gone out of business, so I was forced to buy in the big city of Red Deer. I couldn't find a discount chain saw, I was forced to wait for 3 months until they went on sale.
The cleanup of old dead trees is ongoing, but slowly I have worked my way to the back of the lot. This year I will be planting more new trees. I have already planted over 150 new trees on our 7 acres, and I hope to plant another 100 this year.
Our house is heated completely with wood. Before you get all high and mighty about wrecking the environment, remember that almost everyone else pumps carbon out of the ground to heat their homes. I use carbon that is already on the surface, and mostly from deadfall or standing dead trees. These trees were going to rot and release their carbon anyways, I just speeded it up. Any of you get power for running the fan on your furnace from a coal fired electrical plant lately? You bet you did, if you live in North America.
One thing I could use is a chain saw sharpener tool. I have always used the file completely by hand, but I want to try one of these gadgets and see if it is any easier.

Whatever Happened to Chernobyl?

This came up at work today: whatever happened with that Chernobyl disaster? We couldn't even remember how long it had been since the explosion and irradiation of some Russian city et al. I told everyone I would look it up tonight and get the lowdown, so we could all git edjucated. Our closest guess was, everyone dead for a hundred miles and nothin left but a huge crater. Turns out we were wrong.
It happened in 1986, which is 22 years ago. That explains why I can't remember it; I had a bit of a teenage alcohol addiction, and spent most of my spare time trying to figure out ways to get beer. I just wasn't much into the news back then. I still don't pay too much no never mind, since it is all so depressing anyways. Why listen to all the disasters, horror stories and drama? Thats why we got movin' picture shows, ainit?
So the abandoned city of Pripyat is still abandoned, and I couldn't find any information on exactly how many people died because I don't think there is any way to tell exactly how many people got some of that radiation from the fallout plume that drifted over Western Europe. I read that some of it even made it to Eastern North America. I'm a little creeped out by this whole idea. This disaster was supposedly worse than Hiroshima, so far as how much radiation was released. I'm sure Hiroshima was more devastating explosion wise though.
I just don't think we should mess with all this radiation stuff. It is downright dangerous!

It's 6:00 am An Ah Needs Mah Coffee

Why do I have to get up so early? It seems like there is so miuch to do out there in the world and not enough of us little ole workin men t get it done. I gotta be on the road by 6:20 and that's just a few minutes from now. Force down some java, bathroom break and out the door into the cold I go. Jeez, I need Christmas break. 2 weeks off, starting on the 19th and I can't wait.