Ken Fitzgerald
08-26-2006, 3:03 PM
29 years ago, I bought a home in central Oregon on the eastern slopes of the Cascade mountains. The house, a single story well insulated at construction, had electric baseboard heat and a really good wood stove in the family room. The family room had been added on and was the lowest level room in the house. We could literally heat the 1600 sq. ft. house with that stove. We set the individual controls on the electric heaters to their lowest levels and I cut a lot of firewood.
The wood there is mainly pine and fir and not known for holding fires well or being efficient heat producers........so it took a lot of wood to get through the winters there at a elevation of 5000'.
Logging was a big industry at the time in this town of 18,000 people and it had a large mill and a couple of small mills. So I walked into a local logging supply place and told the guy I wanted to buy a "real" chainsaw. I wanted one that could be used for logging.
The guy convinced me to buy a McCollach ProMac 1010. It was extremely expensive at the time....I don't remember the exact cost but I remember it was expensive.
I used it for a couple of heating seasons there. It never failed me once. I took it with me when I moved to Chicago. It helped a couple of neighbors and my FIL there.
I moved to Idaho. It's helped a couple of neighbors and it's spent a lot of time in elk camp. We camp at an elevation of 7000' and use wall tents and woodstoves.....cots and 3" foam pads......We often cut and split a 1/2 cord of firewood to get us through the month of elk season and the last 10 days most of all. Our elk camp broke up about 6 years ago after the guy who owned the pack mules and horses got too old to hunt.
So....my chainsaw has been to the mountains since but I don't remember using it....we carry them to cut trees that have blown down and block roads.....
I just mixed a fresh 1 gallon can of gas, greased the bar sprocket, filled the gas tank....filled the chain oiler........set the choke.........pulled the starting cord...3rd pull ........it started.......3 seconds later turn off the choke........need to adjust the idle speed....
29 years later.........I'm still thanking that guy who sold me that expensive chainsaw...........I've gotten my money's worth more than once out of it and it's still never let me down!
The wood there is mainly pine and fir and not known for holding fires well or being efficient heat producers........so it took a lot of wood to get through the winters there at a elevation of 5000'.
Logging was a big industry at the time in this town of 18,000 people and it had a large mill and a couple of small mills. So I walked into a local logging supply place and told the guy I wanted to buy a "real" chainsaw. I wanted one that could be used for logging.
The guy convinced me to buy a McCollach ProMac 1010. It was extremely expensive at the time....I don't remember the exact cost but I remember it was expensive.
I used it for a couple of heating seasons there. It never failed me once. I took it with me when I moved to Chicago. It helped a couple of neighbors and my FIL there.
I moved to Idaho. It's helped a couple of neighbors and it's spent a lot of time in elk camp. We camp at an elevation of 7000' and use wall tents and woodstoves.....cots and 3" foam pads......We often cut and split a 1/2 cord of firewood to get us through the month of elk season and the last 10 days most of all. Our elk camp broke up about 6 years ago after the guy who owned the pack mules and horses got too old to hunt.
So....my chainsaw has been to the mountains since but I don't remember using it....we carry them to cut trees that have blown down and block roads.....
I just mixed a fresh 1 gallon can of gas, greased the bar sprocket, filled the gas tank....filled the chain oiler........set the choke.........pulled the starting cord...3rd pull ........it started.......3 seconds later turn off the choke........need to adjust the idle speed....
29 years later.........I'm still thanking that guy who sold me that expensive chainsaw...........I've gotten my money's worth more than once out of it and it's still never let me down!