How to use a solar clothes dryer

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Susan

Pin overlapped edges so laundry doesn’t blow up and down the line.

OK, this is probably offensive. I apologize to folks who are appalled that I would write a post on hanging out laundry. But here’s a sad fact. Many people who come to my house and ask what they can do to help me have no idea how to hang out clothes. They are used to just popping it in the dryer. On a sunny, breezy day, yet.

I like a dryer as much as the next girl if it is wet and cold out. I love to put on clothes warm from the dryer when it is cold in our bedroom. Dryers even remove a certain amount of lint from black clothes and leave bath towels soft and fluffy. Dryers are great for drying and fluffing pillows and down jackets.

But dryers suck immense amounts of power, which is expensive and bad for the environment, unless you have high tech solar panels or wind turbines. And you don’t. If you did, your lights would probably dim when you used the dryer. Plus drying laundry in the sweet air and sunshine makes it smell nicer, and bleaches and disinfects your clothes. Therefor if you have dark clothes that are liable to fade, dry them on a hanger in the shade.

OK, first you need your low tech solar clothes dryer. Read the rather apologetic post. Once you have all that in place, continue. If you can’t be bothered, make like a camper and hang your laundry on bushes.

While the Sun Shines.

OK, you can dry laundry in cold weather- I have peeled frozen laundry off the line and taken it indoors for a final fluff and dry- at least it saved some dryer time. But basically, if see a nice sunny, breezy day, I think it would be fun to do some laundry.

Obvious Logistics.

Take your laundry out in a basket with your pins in the bag I described how to make in the last post.

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The bag gaps open so you don’t have to fight to reach the clothespins

Give larger items a good snap to shake out wrinkles as you hang them. My line is long and sags in the middle, and I don’t care to prop it up with a long, wackly pole, so I just hang short things in the middle. Long things like sheets, jeans, and overalls go at the ends. Thin things like sheets and shirts can be held overlapped with one pin. This isn’t because I am too cheap to buy pins, but so that the wind won’t blow everything up and down the line. You should try not to pin two thick things together as it will leave a wet spot. Just grab something thinner as you hang up the clothes.

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pull out pockets if it’s chilly

Thick things like jeans should be hung by the waist, because when I hang them by the hems, the water drips down into the thickest part of the jeans that are hardest to dry. Pull out the pockets. Shirts should be hung by the corners so the wind bellies them out like a spinnaker; it blows the wrinkles out and you can hang socks and underwear in the space where it sags down in the middle. Dress pants I hang creased by the hems, but I suppose they would be just fine tossed in the dryer for 5 minutes with the very dark lint-loving clothes and then hung up. Dresses I hang by the hem so they belly out in the wind and dry without stiffness or wrinkles.

Fragrant and Clean

Curtains, sheets and pillowcases are obvious. If you only hang one thing, it should be your bed linens. The smell of air dried sheets is so wonderful! You will even sleep better! But you really should dry your socks and underclothes in the sunshine. The sun’s rays are free, non-toxic bleach and disinfectant. You can hang them facing backwards so they don’t look too public if your clothesline is in a place people can ogle knickers, -if you know such people. And one nice thing is that if you used to feel you needed to buy laundry detergent with perfume, you won’t need to anymore. God’s sweet air is nice enough.

How to burn a pile of green brush

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Susan

Green brush can burn easily with enough heat, proper placement, and the use of gravity…

Sometimes a living tree falls down, a branch breaks, or a tree has to be cut down because we need the space. I almost never cut a living tree. If you have green (not dried enough to burn easily) brush, it’s better to pile it somewhere and let it dry before burning it, if you are going to burn it. But last week I had to cut down a Thorny Locust which was growing too close to a shed, and I had to burn it now because a) the branches were in a cornfield that will need to be plowed before the brush has dried, and b) those thorns are lethal to people, dogs, and even tires.

Refer first to all my posts about wood cutting. If a Thorny Locust falls on you, you better hope it kills you. Those thorns hurt. Pay attention to where the branches are going, and watch where you put your feet. Cut the branches into small enough pieces to pick up. Pick them all up or, as sure as God made little green apples, as my mother says, you will step on one and it will go right through your boot.

Heat, Placement, and Gravity

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burning a green brushpile

My theory in getting green branches to burn is this; heat, placement, and gravity. I figured out this system after a hurricane when I had lots of trees down. It works like a charm.

Start by reading my post on how to make a bonfire without chemical starters. I hate that stinky stuff, plus there is good advice in there about placement, safety precautions, and the law. You want to be sure you aren’t going to hear sirens, -or wish you heard them. Once you have found a safe place to burn, and have made sure it is not too dry or too windy to safely burn, gather a dry materials to make a brushpile about knee high. Have all your green branches ready to pile. Start your dry fire, and keep a few dry sticks and branches handy in case you need them later. You need a hot fire to start the green branches.

reviving a fire the next morning

Now, this is counter intuitive, but put your green branches in butt first. Pile them butt to the center, stacking so the pile ends up looking like a porcupine. Put a few dry pieces in as well, stabbing them down through the porcupine pile so that as the bottom burns it will fall downwards into the pile. As the heat of the dry wood catches the butts of the green wood, since they are close together, they will keep each other burning, and eventually become hot enough and dry enough to burn away. As they burn away the ones on top fall into the fire. Push the ones on the sides into the middle- you should be able to kick them in with your boots. You are maintaining the porcupine shape, but the fire is getting smaller. The ones in the center will eventually dry out and burn away, and you can push the outside ones up and kick them to the center. You will need to generally stay close to this fire during the process, but if you let it die and it goes out and doesn’t restart from being kicked together, just open the center from the side, and build a new fire by putting tinder, twigs, and sticks on the existing coals. Be careful not to accidentally stand or kneel on live coals. Then kick the fire together and keep a better eye on it. Eventually instead of a huge unwieldy pile of green branches, you will have a cute little pile of twigs.

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That’s all that’s left

Glory in the Snow

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Susan

Flowering quince in the snow

Well, I was sure surprised to wake up and find magical snowflakes falling into a melting world. Farmers used to go out and plow late snows under- I’m not sure what the thinking was, but they said it was poor man’s fertilizer. Also, a late snow like this is called an onion snow. I do know that it will water my lettuce seeds without washing them away. But how lovely! The bamboo was bent into a cave, my parents’ house looked like a Currier & Ives engraving, the Miles River lay still and absorbed the snowflakes. I went out with the camera thinking to get some rare pictures of Pickbourn in the snow. At Christmas time I like to make calendars for everybody with pictures I’ve taken during the year, but I never have any snow pictures for December. The python-like wet bark of a half hollowed sycamore caught my eye, but as I was snapping away a load of snow fell in my face. It was so warm I couldn’t believe any snow stuck at all. There was snow on open daffodils, and on plum buds just about to pop. I don’t think this will be a problem for the plums. It was just slush on the buds, and in Florida growers spray water on trees during mild freezes. Plums are susceptible to late freezes though.

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Plum tree in the snow

I wonder if the snow bothered the peaches, which were definitely blooming. I doubt it. Wimpiest snow ever. Just enough to keep the kids out of school.

I went and and split a few logs; locust, hickory, cherry, and cedar. I’m working on an article about different woods.The hickory is a bit green, but my DH likes to put a green log in the stove at night so it will burn slowly and still have coals to catch in the morning. I have the theory that this will create creosote in the chimney, which can then puff up and block the chimney when you have a strong fire that burns it, and then you have to call our buddy Ken Wells of Atlantic Chimney Service to get it cleaned. I’d rather burn dry wood and close the vents to slow the burn. But perhaps that isn’t any better. The cool thing is that Ken installed a stainless steel chimney liner so chimney fires do us no harm.

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lassie dog in the snow

My daughter’s dog Lassie (an un-neutered Sheltie male, but go figure) had a fine time chasing around in the snow. He has the fur for it, but he also loves to come in to the fire. During this kind of weather we let in the cats as well. Lassie likes to hold them down with one paw and lick their ears. For some reason they accept this.

When it’s miserable out I like to bake cookies, mainly for the smell in the house. But my husband doesn’t eat many sweets and I don’t want to pig out by default, so here is a quick recipe for a tiny batch of shortbread.

1/2 stick butter, or substitute 2 tbsn cocnut oil and 2 tbspn butter

1/4 c. brown sugar

1 c. spelt or other flour

a light grating of lemon peel, maybe 1/4 tsp

1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary (it grows by the door)

Work together- I rub it with my fingers because that’s how I do biscuits and I like the feel. When it can form a ball, roll it out on a lightly floured board about 1/4 inch thick and make diamonds by cutting criss cross parallel lines on the bias. You can prick them with a fork as well if you like. Bake on an ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheet at 350 12-15 minutes. I saw a recipe that said 8-10 but it didn’t brown them enough for my taste. Let them cool before eating so they will be crunchy. This recipe makes one plateful, and they can be arrnaged nicely because they are diamond shaped. The lemon and rosemary idea I got from my stepdaughter Rebekah. It is very nice and perfumey.

How to make a Solar Clothes Dryer

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Susan

If you are a handy person who has built several houses already, skip this post on how to set up a clothesline. Some folks who search my posts are handyman-handicapped, but it’s not their fault. They are handy-minded people who aren’t handy yet.

So here’s your low tech solar clothes dryer.

Clothesline, pole, hook. You need a clothesline, and you can buy one with a nice plastic coated retractable line at the hardware store. That makes it easier to tighten when it stretches and you need to take up slack.

Find a good spot. It will be easier if you can attach one end to a building, so you only need to sink one pole, but make sure it is not an area where people are always coming through. The WWF actually has a wrestling move called a “clothesline,” which involves sticking out your arm while your clearly myopic opponent stupidly runs into it and gets knocked out by a surprising blow to the Adam’s Apple. I have actually been clotheslined while galloping a pony bareback around our house when I was 14. Pretty descriptive reason not to put your clothesline where folks will get injured by it. It should obviously receive full sun and be open to breezes. If you live in a place where people you don’t know are constantly around, you might like to put it someplace less visible, so people don’t see underwear, etc., flapping around in the breeze. My aunt actually asked me not to put my clothesline where she would have to see it. Some of us need reminding….

You need to sink a post or two posts thick and strong enough to take the weight when the ground is soft and the laundry is heavy. A 4″x4″x 6′ would be a minimum. You can buy them with a cute finial at a Lowes or Home Depot type store. Would be nice to avoid a Big Box though. I sunk mine 12 inches and it still leaned. I straightened it with wedges. Dig a hole using a post hole digger. The link shows a how-to video. You can rent or buy one at the hardware store, or perhaps you have a neighbor who can lend you one. It is a good thing to have. Lift it up and drop/thrust it hard into the soil, then push the handles apart to take a bite out of the soil. Keep it going until you have a 12 inch hole at least. If you want to set it in Quickrete it will hold up better. Definitely use a rot-resistant wood like cedar, locust, or a pressure treated post. Since you want your laundry to be hanging about 5 feet off the ground, and you know your line will sag in the middle, you can’t use less than a 6 foot post. Use a level to make sure you are setting it straight. You should own a level, even if it is a small cheap one. It is quite simple. If you are packing it in dirt, pack it hard and let it settle for a few days. I pushed pieces of broken brick down the hole, and that seemed to work. If you are setting it in Quickrete, which is a ready-mix concrete powder, follow the directions and let it set.

Get a good strong hook while you are at the hardware store. It has a screw end and a hook end. Using a power drill, (not too many of us have hand drills any more) drill a pilot hole using a drill bit that is slightly thinner than the screw end of your hook. A pilot hole is a hole that guides your screw in to where you want it to be. It is a bit smaller than the screw so the screw will be secure, but makes it easier than driving the screw into the wood without one. Screw it in by hand, twisting the hook end.

Attach your clothesline by screwing the retracting clothesline housing to the building or other post, tie a loop in the end of the line and loop it over the hook, and lock the line at the retractor. TA DA! Solar clothes dryer.

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The bag gaps open so you don’t have to fight to reach the clothespins

To use your low tech solar clothes dryer, you will need clothespins. Buy 2 packs of wooden clothespins, a cloth grocery bag, and a double ended snap on clip. Put the clothespins in the bag, attach the clip to the handles, and snap the other end onto the line. This way it can slide along while you hang out the clothes. Don’t leave it out in the rain though, as the bag and pins will mildew.

How to make a bonfire without nasty lighter fluid

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Susan

Who doesn’t love a bonfire? Sitting on stumps around a blazing, crackling fire with friends, enjoying a beer or a mug of hot, spiced wine, and then as it burns down to coals, roasting meats, oysters, ears of corn, potatoes, marshmallows? Good times!

Of course, I’m such a pyro I don’t even need the festivities. I just want to get my brushpiles cleaned up. But I hate the smell of lighter fluid. It is a chemical pollutant and I have eaten more than my share of charred meat infused with its noxious odor. No more. If you can’t start your fires with a bow drill, or flint and steel, at least use a match, tinder, and kindling.

So I’m assuming you have wood to dispose of. If this is about a party bonfire, it seems wasteful to go buy nicely cut and split firewood. You should be working on creating a pile of wood that will not otherwise be useful- brush, dead branches, old furniture, garden trimmings, etc. If you are doing this over time it is too much trouble to worry about the construction of the pile, except that if it gets too big it will be too hot to get close to. My cousin builds his with a bulldozer and whole trees. His fires are spectacular yearly events. We could never have them if we had nearby neighbors. Which brings me to a point I hate to mention.

Make sure there aren’t local laws that you will be violating. Make sure you don’t have nervous neighbors who will call the law on you. Make sure you are above all things careful that your fire is under control and not able to reach something you don’t want burned up, such as a house or truck. And don’t imagine nothing will happen. Story: as a young bride I moved into a ground floor apartment in Jersey City (I know, I know). I went out to clean up the yard and started to burn my leaf pile, as I had done all my life. Within 15 minutes a firetruck pulled up, giant New Jersey firemen hopped into my back yard, scornfully hosed down my little leaf pile, and left with hardly a backward glance. Embarrassing. ‘Nother story: Once I was burning brush out in the field and it got into the hedgerow. It happened because I was getting overly enthusiastic about cleaning up leaves on the edge of the hedgerow. It caught in the dead catbriars and flew up into a tree with a huge rush of flame. Fortunately the tree was green and the vines quickly burnt out, but that taught me. Fire is nothing to fool with. I keep a hose or at least a bucket of water nearby, and a leaf rake. The leaf rake is for beating out flames that try to go where they shouldn’t. It works very well and I have never had any more problems.

Burn when the ground is wet. Be careful about wind. A little breeze is ok if your pile is well isolated from flammable materials, but if the wind catches your fire and tosses sparks onto a roof you’ll really wish you had waited for a better day.

Know your prevailing wind. That means, where does it blow from most of the time? Bear that in mind for safety, smoke, and starting the fire. Mine blows from the west, so I start my fire on the west side of the pile.

Arrange materials. Gather small twigs, large twigs, stick, and short limbs you can move around easily. Lay them within reach.

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Dry goldenrod heads make great tinder and their stalks catch nicely as well

Gather some tinder- dead goldenrod heads are really easy to start, and some dead grass and leaves. Set two small logs in a v shape, open towards you and the prevailing wind. Pile the tinder on the bottom, in the V, then leaves and grass. Break up the smallest twigs and lay them criss cross over the leaves, just behind them. This is so as soon as the leaves catch fire the flames will blow back and rise up into the twigs. So behind those stack larger twigs criss cross, larger and so on, like a lopsided teepee, or that famous building in Sydney. Sheltering the flame from the wind with your body, light a match and put it in under the tinder, out of reach of wind. If there is no wind you may need to blow gently to encourage the fire. As the materials catch make sure the fire is feeding through the successively larger sticks you have put on. Rearrange and feed the fire as it grows. The bigger it is, the thicker wood it can eat, like a baby. Pull a few pieces from your pile on top of it as it grows. Eventually you will need to get back as it licks over the V and catches your main pile.

Or you can just save your junk mail in a paper sack and set that on fire to windward of your brushpile. That works pretty well.

As the pile burns you will need to toss in outer pieces. Use a rake, heavy leather gloves, and boots. A ball cap and safety glasses are also not a bad idea if you are concerned about cinders in your eyes and hair.

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Kick ends into the center and rake to contain and renew fire.

When your pile is burned down, you can use the coals for cooking, toasting marshmallows, or starting a new fire in the morning, but don’t just forget about it. Rake the outside to the center and be sure there is no way the fire can get out of control while you are not watching. The best way is to drench it with water, and if you are in an area where the ground is flammable because it contains a lot of humus, as in a forested area, it’s mandatory. Fire can travel underground. My grandmother put out a cigarette on the ground in Canada once, and in the morning she found a tiny spiral of smoke rising from the ground 6 feet away. If she hadn’t noticed that and drenched it, the whole island could have gone up in flames, including the houses.

Fire is a wonderful and primally satisfying thing. I love to spend a winter day cleaning up debris and feeding it into the flames. But I never let myself forget what would happen if it got out of control. Be careful.

Abandon the Pernicious Use of Paper Products!

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Susan

How much money do you spend on paper products every month? How much paper do you throw away, after it has been through the energy consuming process of production, transportation to a store, etc.? Trees may be a renewable resource, but the environmental impact of paper products is huge. You don’t have to use that much paper every day. There are easy, convenient, reusable substitutes right in front of you.

Paper napkins:

My sister and I have used cloth napkins for many years, and if you look at the time and money we would spend buying, storing, laying out and throwing away paper napkins, I’m sure it’s less than we spend tossing them in the washing, hanging out, and folding of the laundry we already do. Also, cloth napkins are more attractive. Mine don’t all match, and for daily use, it actually makes sense to know which one you used at breakfast.

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cleaning cloths, napkins, placemats sanitizing in the sun

Paper Towels

I keep a roll in my kitchen because visitors are so lost and confused if I don’t, and once in a while there is something truly horrible on the floor- dog vomit or something- that I just want sent to the landfill. But basically I have a bucket of cloth squares under my sink; clean, dry, and folded, ready for use. Many of them are old washcloths, but you can actually buy reusable cleaning cloths. They clean better than paper towels, and don’t take up much space in the wash.

Windows

Newspaper works well, but I read the news on the Net, whenever I yank my head out of the sand, so there isn’t much at our house. When sheets get too worn I keep them for cleaning, straining fruit juice, or even a drop cloth, and they work well for windows, using a vinegar solution. I do use one piece of paper towel to buff away the little bits of lint on bathroom mirrors. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds…”- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Swiffer Nonsense

When I had a linoleum floor that needed wiping after mopping, I sewed a pocket out of a piece of worn out bath towel, fit that over my long handled floor brush, and wiped everything spotless without opening a package or squirting a chemical. Now that I have saltillo tiles, I just scrub and mop, but I do keep old towels for big spills.

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lonely socks can be used to dust household surfaces

I also have a bag that is like a singles bar for socks. Sometimes they are reunited with their partners; sometimes not, but if I am on the phone, or walking through the house doing something that doesn’t require one of my hands, I slip on a clean stray sock and run it over things I pass. Makes me look a little like Vanna White (what ever happened to her?) but it picks up dust and dirt easily, and then I toss it in the wash. Things with more complicated profiles are best flicked at with a feather duster- yes, those antiquated things work great.

A note not for the faint of heart:

People cleaned before the invention of disposable paper products. They also answered the various calls of nature. Men, close your eyes. Women, you can save a lot of waste and money by using a menstrual cup, also sold as a moon cup or diva cup. It is actually easier and less messy than tampons or pads. OK men, you can open your eyes; it’s over.

Now, you may not want to hear this, but if you are a hard core prepper, tremble as you imagine a time without toilet paper. I remember someone told me once some 17th century French writer said there was “nothing so nice as the neck of a goose.” People talk about using Mullein leaves, moss, etc., but it’s really not so crazy to use a wash cloth if you have running water to rinse it with afterwards. Most of us have wiped babies’ behinds, and that is a lot messier. OK, honestly, I’m not there yet. I may be comfortable knee deep in deer guts but…butt rags, not so much. And in a post-apocalyptic world, I’m sure I’d be the one trading a basket of radioactive chestnuts for a roll of toilet paper. OK, never mind, I’ll go take a picture of a Mullein plant.

My Grandmother’s Easy Authentic Texas Chili con Carne (with deer meat)

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Susan

Greenhouse broccoli with venison chili on turmeric rice

My grandmother, born Crystal Ray Ross, grew up in Lockhart, Texas, but spent a lot of time on a ranch in New Mexico. I don’t think she ever told me the name of whoever taught her to cook chili, but she did say she was allowed to go on roundups, because, as she proudly said, the hands said she knew how to keep out of the way. She had 3 horses; Poindexter, a tall Eastern horse she didn’t like, Negro, a black Mexican cow pony trained to rear and gallop off madly the minute you put your foot in the stirrup, and Old Blue, a gentle grey horse the cowboys called Old Glue because of his age. It was Old Blue she rode on cattle drives, and perhaps that is where she learned to make this chili.

I have changed it a little of course- I use deer meat, and I add more tomatoes and beans than she did. She served beans separately. She served her chili with grits, to which she added garlic, canned milk, and butter.

CRD’s Chili

2 onions, chopped

2 tablespoons healthy oil -or bacon grease, which was on hand….

1 quart bag defrosted ground venison

3-4 tablespoons chili powder

4-6 cloves garlic,chopped

1 tsp. dried oregano

11/2 tablespoons cumin seeds

1 quart canned tomatoes (mason jar)

1 1/2 cups cooked black beans (a can)

salt to taste

Brown the onions and meat well in a big heavy pot, add garlic, oregano, cumin seeds and chili powder. 3-4 tablespoons of chili powder just means a whole bunch. Brown it a bit more to bring out the flavor, then add your tomatoes and beans. Simmer on medium until well combined, salt to taste, then leave it on very low heat until ready to serve, or set it somewhere for the flavors to develop. It is better every day and freezes well. I have sometimes added beer, but that’s not what Granny did. I also have my own home raised and toasted chili powders, with which I can crank up the heat in this otherwise mellow and savory chili.

It is delicious with grits or rice, some guacamole, a salad and some warm hand patted corn tortillas. A splash of hot sauce and a few bottles of cold beer pair nicely.

@Glory Garden

Cutting up a dead tree that is already down

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Susan

Cutting wood is doubly satisfying for me. Not only am I keeping my house warm, but I’m cleaning up. Here on the farm trees fall down and drop branches all the time. When I moved back to the farm in 1999, I had a wood stove and a teacher’s salary. As children growing up in a big drafty house we all carried the wood my father cut, but we never even carried the chainsaw. Time for a change.

If you are interested in learning to cut wood for yourself, make sure you have a good familiarity with handling and maintaining your chainsaw. Here is my last post on that.

Cutting up downed trees is easy, but you just need to understand how the wood will fall or shift as you cut it. Where is the tension; do you need to cut from the top or the bottom? Where should you stand? Really think about it, or you will at the very least pinch your chainsaw and there it will stick in the tree until you get other tools or another chainsaw to get it out.. At the worst, you will get hurt. Seriously, here is a scary story, required reading:

My mother wanted a satellite dish. The installer said that a certain branch was blocking her reception. My father said fine, you can use my ladder and my chainsaw. The clever young man declined, but offered to hold the ladder while my 70 year old father ascended about 30 feet into a poplar tree to do it himself (needless to say had my mother or I been on the farm we would have dissuaded him). The branch he cut swung down and knocked the ladder out from under him, and he fell to the ground, breaking his pelvis in two places, tearing several tendons in his ankle, cracking his skull, and lacerating his scalp. He had to be airlifted to Baltimore. Thank God he wasn’t hurt worse.

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This asymmetrical dead cedar will be easy to cut up, except for the cat briers.

OK, back to work. Let’s start with this old cedar tree that blew down. It had been leaning on another tree for a while, and there is a reason they call those widowmakers. I wasn’t going near it. But now it is down and you can see that because it grew close to another tree all its branches grew off to one side. This will make it easy to get the main trunk away, and if I want since it is in a hedgerow I can just leave the brush there. However there is a lot of complicated tension in the branches, and I will need to watch it not to get my saw blade pinched in a cut.

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I made small cuts from either side until I saw where it was going

Cut side branches off flush from main trunk. If this tree had been lying differently I might have first cut the branches off at the smallest usable thickness and worked my way in so as to keep from cutting small branches on the ground and dulling my saw in the dirt. The disadvantage of doing it that way is that if the branches are flexible they can shake around and pull the chain off the bar if you have carelessly allowed it to get loose. This picture shows how a heavy branch can slide when you cut it, rather than bend up or down. I was lucky not to pinch it. I had my feet well clear and I made small cuts from both directions until I saw what was going to happen.

Here you can see how easily this trunk came away. When you are cutting up a big trunk like this, think about how you will be splitting the “rounds.” Cedar is super easy to split, unless there are knots in the wood, and there often are. “Bucking” a log is marking out how you will cut it by making small nicks in the trunk with your saw. I know how deep my woodstove is, but I also know a hard-to-split mess when I see it, so I try to really gnarly logs a lot shorter, either in hopes of splitting them anyway, or sliding them in the stove as a disc, or just throwing them on a bonfire. A nice boring straight round is what I want.

Now I can throw the big rounds (dead cedar is light) in the truck and clear space to get at the branches that are big enough to bother with. I really love the smell and crackle of cedar, and will cut pieces as small as my arm, or even smaller for kindling. Dry cedar catches nicely.

Ok, now lets take another cleanup project. I have a low dead osage orange branch that is really good size, and I have decided to cut it off the tree to open up the view and ease the weight on the tree which is leaning anyway. For now I decided to leave a piece of it there because it makes a nice place for us to sit and admire the sunset. I know the branch is going down, but may twist, so I take off branches that could whack me first, standing out of the way and cutting from the top down.

Osage orange has major BTUs and catches easily, so I will use every bit of this branch. Besides, it is an area that needs to be cleaned up anyway. I do actually cut the branches into lengths right on the branch once it is down (not safe to cut over your head) because they are small and I will definitely get into the dirt and dull my chain if I cut flush at the major limb first. It is pretty stiff and I made sure my chain was on tight. Any brushy stuff left over can start a brush pile right in the field, since I plan to cut up some living small trees that are growing up too close to the shed. The heat of dry osage orange is what I need to get a green brushpile to start.

cut wood 300x225 Cutting up a dead tree that is already down

Cut off branches too small for use, being careful not to endanger your chain.

The wood is a gorgeous yellow color, which might mean the tree has medicine in it for liver ailments. In the Amazon every tree has miraculous healing powers that are known to the indigenous people. I sat and sketched and took notes all day. So why not our own trees? We have lost so much by destroying Native American culture.

Ok, before we quit, let’s cut up this dead cherry tree. It is leaning out so I know I can easily stand next to it and cut downward, and it will fall right down without any surprises. It has been dead long enough that there is no brush to deal with.

cut wood 6 225x300 Cutting up a dead tree that is already down

when the heavy part of the trunk is cut I will be able to pull the rest of the tree off the cinderblocks.

The only thing I have to watch is that there is a pile of cinderblock rubble somebody forgot here. It was meant to go down the bank for erosion control many years ago. If my blade touches it there will be sparks and a dull chain to sharpen. I will just buck it out, slicing out the fork as short as I can because it is hard to split, and then cut in all the areas that are safe, then pull the now easily movable log to where I can cut it, finish up and start loading the truck.

That was a satisfying day’s work, and I am ready for a hot shower and a beer.

pickbourn landscape 5 300x224 Cutting up a dead tree that is already down

Time for a beer.

Peppers Hot and Sweet: Growing food and medicine from Chile Agua to Bhut Jolokia

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Susan

Jimmy Nardello is a sweet Italian pepper that is pretty and prolific.

Of all the Solanaceae, Capsicums (the pepper family) are are neck in neck with Tomatoes for my affection.There are SO many peppers! Peppers of every flavor, every color,every shape and size, they are pretty plants, and they are generally really easy to grow, given a bit of warmth and sunshine, even in containers. They produce generously, and they are both delicious and very medicinal. You couldn’t ask for a better plant friend.

Temperature:

The heat of capsicums doesn’t register on a thermometer, but it isn’t just a flavor either. The “heat” comes from a rubefacient (reddening) effect on the tissues. It causes your capillary veins to open, pulling extra blood through the affected area, because your surface nerves think you are in contact with something chemically hot that needs to be repaired, although it isn’t actually damaging you.The combination of heat sensation and flavor creates synergy that is addictive to so-called chiliheads! But peppers are a medicinal herb as well: Capsaicin, the active ingredient in chile heat, doesn’t just affect your tongue and other mucus membranes(do NOT touch your eye!), but your external skin as well. This can be great for sore muscles, -and literally a life saver.

Medicinal Use: For Aches and Pains, wear it:

Even if you don’t eat hot peppers, you should grow them to make liniments and creams for sore muscles and stiff joints. If you can tolerate eating a little, it’s good for your heart! Some people even carry hot sauce or cayenne tincture with them in case of a heart attack. (I’m not a doctor; just a gardener who reads).

Make your own pain relief:

For sore muscles, you can tincture peppers in alcohol to make a liniment rub, or make an oil infusion as a heating massage oil.

To tincture in alcohol, fill a glass jar with dried cayenne peppers and top with cheap vodka or other 80 proof alcohol. In a few days you will find that the alcohol has turned orange and is very spicy. Rub it on stiff muscles and painful joints, a lot of it. The drawback is that alcohol feels cold, but it does penetrate better than oil.

To make an oil infusion, do the same thing but with oil. I have used fresh peppers as well as pepper flakes for this. It needs to stay warm for a week to ten days, which, since it doesn’t matter if it is affected by the sun, can be done in the back window of a parked car, or sitting on a radiator. You can then draw it off the top and leave the rest to get stronger if you like, or filter it. I use olive oil, but other oils, like jojoba, penetrate better, so that is my next trick. Rub it on achy muscles and cover.

Here’s what I do for back spasms, etc.: My DH hurts his back now and again, so I set up my massage table in front of the woodstove and lay out my materials. I actually combine some peppermint infused oil as well for good measure. Alcohol tinctures are great, but only if applied warm. I prepare some wet towels folded into squares, and heat them in the evil microwave (which I use for nothing else!). I have some warm quilts ready. I lay him out face down, covered with quilts except for the area I’m working on, and start rubbing spicy oils into his back, applying the oil gently all over the back and then massaging slowly from the least sore areas towards the worst. Of course my hands will get very hot, but I really hate working with gloves. If I ever get arthritis, I’ll benefit from these sessions even more. When it’s time to take a break, I put a thin cloth on the sore area, put the hot wet towel in a big ziploc bag, lay it on top, and cover with the quilts. He may well sleep by then. I replace the hot packs as they cool and let him rest. He feels the heat on his back for hours, even after he’s up and moving around. Capsaicin is a great painkiller!

Cardiac claims: Alternative healers say that warming herbs like ginger root and hot peppers warm the body, energize the heart, and thin the secretions. I certainly find a spicy soup can fend off a cold. Hot peppers can make your nose run, which can unblock it, and help you to feel better. Spicy food gets your digestion going as well, so you may feel a lot lighter afterwards…. But to decide if you think it is good for your heart is up to you. My husband says it makes him feel better, but he is a person who shuns pharmaceuticals in general. It is certainly part of many herbal heart remedies, and it is good for you in many ways, although a very few people are allergic. What it apparently, allegedly, (note me being careful) does for the heart is open up the capillaries, thereby helping circulation to the extremities and taking the load off the heart. Therefor some people carry cayenne tincture with them to guzzle in the event of a heart attack. My husband says should he ever keel over he wants me to dump it down his throat and into his eyes. Yee-ikes!

Culinary Use: Eat the Heat- and the Sweet

We gauge pepper heat in terms of Scoville Units. From Bell peppers to the deadly hot Bhut Jolokia , also known as the Naga Bhut Jolokia, there are about a million Scovilles. It’s sort of silly- Jalapenos are about 3000, Red Caribbean Habaneros are 300,000. Please. How do they get these numbers? Somebody explain this to me. But people who love hot peppers,- I call them chiliheads, are nerdy masochists. We delight in creating evil concoctions to drip onto our food, and try to one-up each other with the latest white-hot bullet from the wilds of Borneo, brought back by an expedition of which half the explorers were eaten by cannibals. Names of chili sauces read like death metal album covers: Lethal Ingestion, Trinidad Scorpion Ghost…but as I get older, not only do I get a stomach ache from overindulging in seriously hot peppers, but I’m sort of over the heat competition, and more into interesting flavors- like the bouguet of apricot and caramel you taste when biting into a habanero in the nanoseconds before the pain hits.

Sweet No Heat:

Perhaps I was a bit giddy, saying they come in every flavor. Peppers come sweet to hot, with lots of overtones and undertones, like wine. I didn’t mean to claim they come in mint or banana, -although there are both sweet and hot banana peppers; long, yellow, and ripening in generous bunches. In Spanish, the bell pepper that most Anglos think of as safe and friendly is known as Chile Agua. Water chile. Fleshy and full of water, and at least the green ones, compared to other peppers, taste like…water. Friends, there is more to peppers than water. But common sweet peppers include the Bells, the sweet bananas, the grilling peppers like cubanelles, although not all grilling peppers are absolutely sweet, the sweet cherry peppers, which are wonderful stuffed with cheese, and some sweet pickling peppers. There are lots of sweet peppers with rich, sweet, fruity flavors.

What Wimps can Grow: Packet descriptions are clear about heat. If you are one of those wimps who just can’t associate food pleasure with mouth pain, there are still plenty of choices. I grow California Wonder for my parents, and last year I tried a Burpee mix called Carnival Bells, which included purplish black bells that cooked up green but were pretty in a salad, green bells that ripened yellow, although there were supposed to be oranges and reds as well, and a compact plant that produced ivory mini-bells that ripened pale apricot. The sweet grilling peppers are about 6-8 inches long and usually 1/2-2 inches thick. I I love Jimmy Nardello, a gorgeous Italian sweet frying pepper that ripens rapidly and dramatically. The graceful waxy green fruits, 1/2 inch thick by 8 inches long, seem to catch on fire, the deep crimson streaks flickering up the sides before the whole fruit turns lipstick red. It is very pretty and delicious. I did get a few with a touch of heat though, and I am growing them with extra care this year not to confuse any because it distinctly says Jimmy Nardello is sweet. There are peppers that play pepper roulette, but I think the error may have been mine. Usually little peppers are viciously hot, but I have a pepper from the Amazon that looks like a red Habanero but is quite fruity-sweet except at the very center. It may be a rocotillo type, as it take forever to mature. A lot of South American peppers are low heat.

Medium Heat: But live a little. Get some medium hots. Jalapenos are being bred now to milder and milder heats- even a no heat (what a yawn). And pickling peppers brings the heat down- something about the vinegar. That’s for a summer post, but it is very easy to make semi-spicy pepper relish. But who can resist a good jalapeno popper?

A big medium Hatch pepper has just enough heat to make a thoroughly delicious relleno (pepper stuffed with potatoes and cheese. Hatch is an Anaheim type from Hatch County, New Mexico, so you can’t legally call what I grow in Maryland a Hatch pepper, but they are delicious. In Ft.Worth when I visited my sisters in law, they were selling huge bags of hot, medium or mild fresh Hatch peppers at the Whole Foods, and outside they had a man roasting them in a big revolving cage like a lotto machine. Hot peppers are a part of Texan culture! Love it. Big Jim is a popular Hatch type you can grow.

Ancho,which means wide in Spanish, are the big dark green triangular peppers you see in the store. They make awesome chiles rellenos! They vary in heat and size, but usually the ones in the store are milder and larger than what I grow. I love their smoky flavor, made smokier when I blister them on the stove and rub off the skins (will elaborate in another post this summer). Once semi-softened by this procedure, I can make a hole in them to rinse out the seeds, stick in some cheese and potato, dip them in egg, and fry them. So delicious. Live a little.

Real Heat:

OK, now we get to the heart of chile love. There are reasonable chiles with reasonable heat, like a normal Jalapeno, cayenne, chile negro, chile japones, chile pasilla. By the way, I thought chipotles were smoked, red-ripened jalapenos, but Phillipe Reyes, a friend from Mexico, who grows a lot of chiles in Bristol, VA says they are not; and that they are a specialized pepper (more on this later). They are too fleshy to dry without smoking them. Chile guajillo is kind of medium, with a lot of caramelized flavor and a dark, smooth, shiny appearance when ripened and dried. Then there are chiles that hurt, like chiltepins that grow on wild perennial plants in the Southwest, chile pequins, chile arbol (not too bad). Then there are the rock ‘n roll legends: The habaneros, african bird peppers, Bhut Jolokia, the Ghost Pepper, and most recently, the Trinidad Scorpion. The Indian government is using Bhut Jolokia to make a non-lethal bomb to flush out terrorists. They also put it on food. The theory is that you break a sweat and feel cooler. Hm.

Growing the Legends:

Most of these you need to start early, and you are best off overwintering them indoors and growing them as perennials. (Phillipe Reyes suggests putting a chunk of Tilapia fish under the plant in a pot to give it the extra nutrition it will need to tolerate groing in a container. He reports people keeping chile de arbol in pots for 25 years.) We travel a lot, so I am always on the lookout for new varieties to try. When we were in the Peruvian jungle I got a few in Pucallpa, and one in upriver Yarinacocha, that I treasure. But the Aji Rojo, which just means hot red pepper, that I got from my friend Rosaura’s garden behind La Perla, a jungle B&B in Ucayali, takes forever. I start it in January and I’m lucky to get fruit by November. So now I grow some in pots. They are tiny C.Frutescens, I believe, a brilliant red pepper the size of a wren’s beak, which is dried and powdered, added to food while cooking, or crushed with salt and vinegar into a very hot, slightly citrussy paste which is spread on small flat river fish. You see the attraction?

Easy to grow hots:

pepper sprouts 1 300x225 Peppers Hot and Sweet: Growing food and medicine from Chile Agua to Bhut Jolokia

Bili mirc pepper seedlings just coming up

Some of the peppers I met in India, such as the lal mirc, the bili mirc, and a long curving skinny pepper from Rajasthan called Ganesh, are entirely convenient and easy to grow. One pepper I got from Assam, which is small, wrinkly,citrussy and pretty lethal, about an inch long, was presented to me as Bhut Jolokia. I think the dear man was trying to be nice. Bhut Jolokia is bigger than that, and an Indian friend told me he ate one and cried for his mother. (India is a wonderful, incredible, enormous place where everything may definitely certainly be possible, but 95% is illusion. That is also worthy of another post.) Most of the peppers I found in India are cayenne types that dry well and make excellent spices and condiments. This means you can just use a bit, if you aren’t gung ho, for a gentle warmth and to experience the subflavors. These peppers are also great for external applications to sore muscles and arthritis, and make nice gifts dried on a string.

A Trick for the Cheapsters:

Yes, we want to support our seedsmen, but here’s a secret for the flat broke or just curious you may not have thought of. When you come across dried peppers, the only reason they wouldn’t sprout just as easily as seeds in a package is if they weren’t ripe when they were dried, or if they were heated by more than the sun. I am presently trying to see if there are any survivors in some extra nice chipotles I bought at Krogers. (seeded, soaked, chopped, fried with onions, garlic and olive oil they were DIVINE on eggs) Probably not but I’m just curious how much heat destroys viability. I have also started seedlings from fresh ripe peppers. If the fruit is ripe, you’re good. Of course you may not know the variety name, but you know what you ate, so even if it was a hybrid and you get sketchy parent strains, in a pinch, you can at least get free pepper plants.

How to Start Pepper Plants

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Little pepper sprouts waving their pale leaves at the sun

Just go back to my post on how to sprout tomatoes. The same procedure works just fine for all solanaceae- that includes eggplants as well. This post will give you illustrated steps for how to start seeds using organic potting soil and recycled pots. Plastic plant pots account for a distressing amount of landfill garbage, and they are made from oil as well, so get other people to save them for you and clean and reuse. Sometimes if you have a good relationship with your recycling center they will even save them for you there. Our Midshore Regional Recycling Center actually called me!

Last Word

You can count on lots more pepper articles here. Recipes, condiments, varieties, yum yum. I actually have been thinking about starting a tour club for chili heads. We know so many great places where chiles grow. Wouldn’t it be fun to ride elephants through a tea plantation in Assam and then go to the pepper gardens? Let me know. We can do it. On this nasty February night, however, it’s enough for me to open up some glowing red powdered peppers from my summer garden and shake them into in my venison chili. Piquante! Hallelujah!

Women and Chainsaws!

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Susan

It is winter, and the winds are howling outside, but our big living room is toasty warm despite big windows and french doors. The small woodstove kicks out good heat, and the kettle hisses comfortably on top of it, alongside of a pot of fragrant bean soup that is gently simmering. Outside the door is a stack of wood I cut, split where necessary, and stacked, from dead trees in the hedgerows on this farm.

I think keeping the house warm is a character forming skill for children. Fire-making is a simple competence that is central to human survival, male or female. As the oldest of four girls I learned many skills from my father that he might not have taught me if there had been sons. As the daughter of a German woman I learned early to like work. So as a little girl I gathered kindling, and as I grew bigger, I helped carry and stack the firewood my father cut, along with my little sisters. Especially in the house we lived in in Virginia when he was teaching at Sweet Briar College, this was not just for the benefit of our characters. During the bogus oil embargo in the Seventies, a professor’s salary couldn’t heat a big, drafty house with oil. That house was freezing, and those mountain winters were snowy. It was cold, our feet and hands were numb, and the hills were steep and slippery, but we did what had to be done as a family to keep the fires going. I have to say I don’t think I was sufficiently understanding or fair when my son was 11 and we were hauling wood on the mild, flat Eastern Shore of Maryland. I was divorced and it’s hard for a mother to raise a son alone. Somehow he learned to be strong and protective, and he learned to split wood along the way.

It took some big changes in my life to turn me into a chainsaw woman. My father kept us well away from his Stihl. It was a woodsman thing; no woman could possibly run it without cutting off an appendage. But when I moved back to the farm in ’99, I had no man to cut wood, and there was a cute little Poulan chainsaw at the Lowes for less $99. I had a breakthrough. What a man has that I don’t have is utterly useless when it comes to cutting wood. I had watched this all my life. English professors do this. I could do this. You can do this. Just be careful in everything that you do. Maintain the saw, keep the chain tight so it doesn’t fling itself off the bar and cut you, watch how the wood you are cutting is going to be affected by gravity as you cut so you don’t pinch the bar or drop a tree on somebody. Know what you are doing before you do it, and never hurry.

Buying your first Chainsaw:

OK, let’s get started. You need a saw. Cheap saws are a good start. Not electric- that’s too cheap. Imagine running around the woods followed by extension cords. Gas. You can get a new Poulanat the hardware store for less than a hundred dollars. Go and heft them. Not everybody has the upper body strength and endurance to cut with a 22 inch Stihl, and if you make a mistake you’ll hurt yourself badly. Start with a 14 inch Poulan. I have two 14 inchers and one 16 inch, because they can generally last a year with someone who doesn’t know how to take small engines apart and fix them. And actually, one of them still runs, if put to it. You probably don’t have too many trees that are too big for 14 inches anyway. You might get a used saw cheaper, but if it is your first saw, make sure it is in really good condition and starts on the first pull. Get the instruction manual off the internet and read it through if you don’t get one that comes in a box. Check out all the youtubes. OK, you think you are too good for a Poulan? If money is not that tight, a Husqvarnais the next step up. Stihl is when you are ready to cut with the big dogs. They are pricey but last forever if well-maintained. My husband got me a very old used #41 Farm Boss, 22 inches, for $300 last year, and I take it in once a year for a tune up, which costs me $80 (for 2 saws.) I only use ethanol free gas in it, mixed with a good quality 2 cycle oil, I clean and sharpen it obsessively, and only certain people are allowed to touch it. It is all metal and says “made in West Germany” on it. It is very heavy and if the chain is sharp it goes through a downed locust tree like a hot knife through butter. It would do the same to my foot, if I slipped, so I keep well away from the blade. My back hurts a lot when we have a big blow and I have to cut a lot. Try to alternate between the big and little saw; work until one tank is empty, then switch to the other saw and do a different task. So think about this. Start with a small, light saw.

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My niece showing us how it’s done

While you are at it, get protective gear; safety glasses and ear protectors. And steel toe boots. A friend of mine got a huge chunk of wood right in the eyeball while bush hogging and had to go to a specialist at John Hopkins to save his eyeball. When I have forgotten to wear safety glasses the flying sawdust reminded me in a hurry. For your ears there are those little foam rubber plugs, considerately neon colored so when they fall out of your ears you can find them in the leaves. My father used spitwads. They aren’t much good. You can hear just fine with them in. Honestly, you can get excellent quality cheap ear protectors that are made for shooting. I paid about $10 for some Winchester ear protectors at- I admit it- I went- sorry- Wallyworld. The Husqvarna ones ($17) are tougher though. People are always borrowing mine. If you don’t wear them, your ears will feel funny and you won’t hear very well. Seriously. Damage can become permanent, plus ear protectors are nice and warm. As to boots, I live in barn boots- Wellingtons or whatever. It’s just me. They get sweaty, but they are light and I can slip them off and on while shaking sawdust out of them, and wade through mud and muck without a worry. You might prefer some lace up work boots with steel toes.

Scrench/Chainsaw tool

This is a t-shaped tool that has a screwdriver on one end and two hex drivers on the other. You can’t live without it. It loosens and tightens your chain, the nuts that hold your bar on, and even opens the gas and bar chain oil tanks. You will always be losing it, so spray paint it neon pink or something. Saves cussing.

Fuel

The new ethanol mix gas tears up small engines, especially if you leave it in the saw for more than a few days. You really should leave the saw either totally empty and dry or full while you aren’t running it. If you aren’t using it for a month or so, fill it with gas mixed with Stabil. Leaving it totally empty for too long can cause the seals to dry and crack. I go to a gas station that has ethanol free gas and fill up my 2 gallon can 95% full. If I’m using a 1 gallon, same thing. Chainsaws used mixed gas. You buy the good quality 2 cycle oil,measure it very precisely, and mix it into the gas by shaking. It’s easy though. The oil I mix it with is either pre-measured or squeezes into a measuring container that is designed for 1 gallon. I want to make sure I err just a tad on the side of less than a gallon, and I can tell how much I bought by looking at the pump. A few pennies of gas is not worth having to overhaul your saw.

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pouring bar chain oil into the oil chamber. Don’t get them mixed up….

When you fill your gas tank with the mixed gas, fill the oil reservoir on the other side of the saw as well. They run out at about the same rate, and if you don’t have oil constantly lubricating the bar the chain will overheat and lose the temper of the metal, among other awful things which have never happened to me because I am religious about bar chain oil. Then it won’t hold an edge. Clean off the sawdust so you don’t get dirt in either reservoir. When you are cutting if you are afraid the chain isn’t lubricating hold the chain above some bark and rev the saw. You should see a fine mist of oil darkening the surface. If not, cut off the saw and check the oil.

Tightening the Chain

Your chain should be seated in the groove on the bar with the cutting edges forward. There should be a picture of a chain link with the correct orientation on the blade or the saw somewhere. You may laugh, but I have put the chain on backwards more than once. It doesn’t cut- just makes a sad little groove on the log. Like I said, be careful and watch what you are doing and not only will you avoid removing your legs but you will also avoid the humiliation of revealing yourself as a dork. Of course with the chain on backwards you’d probably just go through the pants and some meat. Researching this post I actually saw that they sell chainsaw safety pants. What’ll these Yankees think up next? (Actually those clever safety conscious Germans, but it’s just something my grandfather used to say.)

Correct Tightness

You should be able to slide the chain back and forth on the bar easily with a gloved hand, but it should pull away and snap back when you pull it up off the bar. If you are cutting and it is making a rattling or even jingling sound, cut it off and check that the chain is not hanging loosely on the bar. It can flip off and hurt you. If you are lucky, it can flip off and make all kinds of little bumps and dents on the chain that will prevent it from sliding smoothly in the groove. Then you have to file or grind the links smooth again, which takes a long time, and it will never cut as well again. So be aware of how much the chain can loosen ass it heats up, as it wears, and if you didn’t tighten the nuts really well. Check your saw frequently. If you have been cutting for 15 minutes, you probably can cut off the saw and spend a few minutes pulling brush into a pile, putting logs in a cart or the back of a truck or something, while your saw cools enough for you to check it. This is also good for your body. If you do the same thing for too long without varying, you will get sore and not be able to do as much. Do stretch. If you are loosening and tightening the bolts, check to see if there is a lot of debris under the panel and clean that out. Sometimes I get the bit in my teeth and overheat the little saw.

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opening side panel of chainsaw with scrench. Dont lose bolts!

To tighten the chain, using the hex head on your scrench, loosen the two nuts holding on the side panel until it is loose enough to wiggle a tiny bit. Locate the tightener screw next to the bar that tightens the chain. Now, using the screwdriver tip of the scrench (see how useful it is?) turn the screw clockwise until the chain is tight enough to snap when you pull it off the bar, but loose enough to slide back and forth on the bar. If you have to take the chain off to clean the saw, take the side panel right off, carefully putting the 2 nuts in the upside down panel and in a safe place. It is amazing how losing those can waste your time. Tip the bar to give yourself enough slack to remove the chain. Don’t sling the chain around as it will turn into a Chinese puzzle. Just lay it carefully on a relatively clean surface in a circle.

Clean dirt, sawdust, and oil off the saw. Some saws can get so dirty the bar chain oil won’t flow, which is bad for the blade. I clean mine before or after each use, and if I am doing something else to it I clean it to make it easier to work.

Putting the chain back on is a little trickier but just do it and you’ll get the hang. First, locate the chain tightening screw on the detached panel and turn it counter clockwise, noticing how the little nub that fits into the hole on the bar moves back. You’ll need to do that so the hole on the bar fits over it. Clean the bar, remembering the groove, and lay it back on the bolts. It doesn’t matter which way. Turn the chain tightening screw until it sits over the hole when you put the panel on the bolts. You can fuss with this later but I just think it’s easier to do it when you are putting the bar in place. Looking carefully at the forward direction of the teeth on top, put the chain over the tip of the bar and around the sprocket, and pull it into place along the groove so that the whole thing aligns. Put the side panel in place and semi-tighten the screws. Make sure the chain tightener is in the hole in the bar and tighten the chain. You might have to slide the chain back and forth a little as sometimes the chain is on the top or bottom of the sprocket and it has to ride over so it slides straight in the groove on the bar. When it is tight enough to snap and slides smoothly, tighten the bolts as tight as you can with the scrench. If you don’t the saw’s vibration will loosen them and the chain will become slack, which is inefficient and dangerous.

Bar Maintenance

Clean the groove out whenever you have the chain off. Put a rag over the screwdriver end of your chainsaw tool and run it down the groove. There is a grease gun you can buy to put lubricant into the tiny holes in the bar. I got some and lost it. I never heard of anybody doing that anyway. If the groove gets too worn the chain will wobble and not cut as well. Sand in soil will accelerate this- another reason to keep your chain out of the dirt. You can buy a replacement chainsaw bar but they cost $25- $50.

Starting the Saw

If you have mixed gas and oil in the chambers, your protective gear is on and you are ready to go, here’s how to start it. Put the choke on. Because I don’t have the upper body strength to hold it with one hand and pull it with the other, I put my boot in the handle, hold it down with my left hand, and pull with my right. Generally one good fast pull will start a happy saw. Then give it some gas and the choke will come off automatically. But saws aren’t always happy. According to which saw you have- those directions are good to read- pull 5 slow pulls, half-choke it, and one good pull. If it almost starts, take the choke off. The next pull should do it.

Troubleshooting

If you aren’t giving it a really fast pull and you end up flooding the carburetor, you will smell a lot of gas. Let it sit for 10 minutes or so and try again. Some saws have a little plastic bladder pump that you push to prime the motor. Those work well but eventually the plastic cracks. You can fix them but by then you might be ready for a new saw anyway. If it just won’t start it could be that you used old gas. (Gas that sits for even a week in a half-full gas can isn’t fit to use, especially in warm weather, unless it has stabilizer in it. It’s the new ethanol mix that makes it so bad. You really should buy gas in small quantities and use it, or try to get ethanol free.) I throw old gas in my ancient Chevy pickup. It doesn’t care. Chainsaws need fresh gas. If you have been trying to start it using bad gas you may be in trouble- the cylinder may be scored; all kinds of horrible stuff. I have gotten away with just emptying it out, letting it sit a little, refilling it with fresh mixed gas, and starting it. It smoked for a moment but then all was well. I have never had the problem be the spark plug. I do sometimes open the Husqvarna and cleaned the airfilter, but it isn’t that dirty. Honestly, the annual trip to A & L Small Engine Repair in Church Hill is all I need (If you are local to me and want his number I’ll give it to you. Excellent, efficient, and honest. Shoot me a comment.) After you get used to your saw you won’t have any problems. I do like to keep my saws in the greenhouse in winter so they won’t be too cold, but it isn’t really an issue in this climate.

One last caveat for fellow dorks. Are you sure you flipped the ON switch? I won’t say a word….

Watch your arm. Sometimes when you pull the pull start string it pulls roughly and you get your arm jerked. It hurts for a day or two. I don’t really know what the reason for that is, but if you pull it slowly out a few times it will pull smoothly again.

sharpening saw e1361333298149 300x231 Women and Chainsaws!

the lines on the metal attachment on my dremel tool show me how to angle my grindstone.

Sharpening the Chain

When the chain is dull, you will know it. You won’t be cutting as fast, and eventually you will see scorch marks on the wood. You don’t want to wait that long, as you may ruin the temper of your chain and then it won’t keep an edge. When you look at the chain, you will see tiny chips and wear marks on the forward edge of the teeth, like a layer is wearing off. The trick to good chain saw wear is even sharpening, and sharpening at the correct angle (30 degrees). You can get a set of little round chainsaw files that go to your saw. The Poulans, Husqvarnas, and Stihls each take a different diameter file. Make sure you find out the diameter you need. My father just set the file at the correct angle and did 10 one-way strokes on each tooth. You can get a device to hold your file the right way as you stroke. My life improved when my DH gave me a cordless dremel chainsaw with bits to sharpen my saws and an attachable guide to show you where 30 degrees is. Just look and be sure you are right up on the edge, and count aloud to make sure you sharpen each tooth the same amount as the Dremel takes off metal quickly. There is also a little curved rise behind each tooth that you should grind down a tiny bit each ten regular sharpenings. If you don’t, as your teeth get shorter you will take off smaller and smaller shavings of wood. There is a chainsaw gauge you can buy very cheaply that you rest on the chain while you file which makes it easy. It is hard metal though. But by this time you will be hooked and won’t mind a bit. A sharp chain is a joyful thing. Once your teeth are nothing but little squares or you have burnt or dinged up the chain you may go buy a new one. They range for 7 to 24 dollars depending on how you buy them, and after all, you are cutting wood to economize.

Now it is time to talk about wood. Click on this link to read about which woods make the best firewood for what.

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Glory Garden

A blog about self-sufficiency and bliss.

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