Tom LaRussa
10-05-2004, 2:23 PM
My nephew and I went over to Orlando on Saturday to pick up the Pecan tree that I bought on ebay for $0.99 just after the first hurricane. Pic here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9816&stc=1
Note in my own defense: Hey, if I'd known there would be three more hurricanes I would have waited for something much closer to home, but, as they say, If wishes were fishes beggers would all eat cioppino for dinner -- or something like that.
Anyhow, at the time a few folks wondered why I would bother with such a puny little tree.
HAH!
This thing measures 36" across at the junction of the two main trunks, one of which is 24" across and the other of which is 18" across. I couldn't measure the circumference because we never did get the thing cut up into manageable pieces!
First off, my beautiful new (to me) Stihl chainsaw would not start. We messed around with it for an hour before we finally persuaded it to fire up once -- at which point it flooded (I think) then gave up the ghost for the day.
So, having driven nearly two hours to get to this place, we attacked the beast with what we had -- a pair of hand saws! As G*D is my witness, pecan wood cuts just like iron. After another couple hours -- during which time we managed to remove one large limb and make a single cut through a small section of the smaller trunk, the next door neighbor arrived home and loaned me his McCullough chain saw.
A cruddy saw, sure, but at least it fired up -- unfortunately, in more ways than one. You see, it apparently had something wrong with the chain oiling mechanise, so by the time I got through a 6-8" limb there was smoke pouring out of the engine. Oh, and the limb spun around on me and pinched the saw so tight it took us about 20 minutes to get it loose.
By this time the sun was going down and we were too exhausted to even attempt anything further.
Oh the joys of woodworking. :mad:
Note in my own defense: Hey, if I'd known there would be three more hurricanes I would have waited for something much closer to home, but, as they say, If wishes were fishes beggers would all eat cioppino for dinner -- or something like that.
Anyhow, at the time a few folks wondered why I would bother with such a puny little tree.
HAH!
This thing measures 36" across at the junction of the two main trunks, one of which is 24" across and the other of which is 18" across. I couldn't measure the circumference because we never did get the thing cut up into manageable pieces!
First off, my beautiful new (to me) Stihl chainsaw would not start. We messed around with it for an hour before we finally persuaded it to fire up once -- at which point it flooded (I think) then gave up the ghost for the day.
So, having driven nearly two hours to get to this place, we attacked the beast with what we had -- a pair of hand saws! As G*D is my witness, pecan wood cuts just like iron. After another couple hours -- during which time we managed to remove one large limb and make a single cut through a small section of the smaller trunk, the next door neighbor arrived home and loaned me his McCullough chain saw.
A cruddy saw, sure, but at least it fired up -- unfortunately, in more ways than one. You see, it apparently had something wrong with the chain oiling mechanise, so by the time I got through a 6-8" limb there was smoke pouring out of the engine. Oh, and the limb spun around on me and pinched the saw so tight it took us about 20 minutes to get it loose.
By this time the sun was going down and we were too exhausted to even attempt anything further.
Oh the joys of woodworking. :mad: