Fatigues

Sammy had a day off, so we went to the wood yard again. He had his camera with him and took some snaps of me getting some planks from a log of chestnut that I had investigated when I went with my daughter last week. It is hard duty for the chainsaws on the driftwood as all kinds of grit and rocks are embedded in the surface or secreted away in cracks. We had to sharpen the small one five or six times while we were there even without any major rock strikes. When you work in the evening you can see little sparks every now and then as the teeth lose some of their mass on the grit. The bigger saw has so many teeth that they each have less work to do and he managed to get through the four cuts I put through the log without losing all his keenness.
The bottom right corner shows me reaching for the aluminium wedge I had on hand to drive into the cut once the saw had reached about a third of the way along. This stops the plank sagging down and binding on the rear teeth of the saw. I don't want to jinx the little beggar, but he started on the third pull and then on the first every time, so I think the recent surgery was a success. Nevertheless I still have my left hand on the throttle to gun the thing a little if the engine sounds a little soggy in its idling. The middle shot on the right makes it look like a dust storm, but the driver side is actually relatively free from dust, the teeth pull the swarf out and then the extra elbow I welded on to the exhaust pushes it away from me, but towards the camera here. The only time that the swarf comes my way is right at the start of the cut before the bar eats its way into the wood.
The blue sheet behind is covering a mountain of the wood chips they made last year. Gradually fermenting I imagine, but they are holding them there because of the radiation risks I think.
The morning started out looking like snow, but it was really warm and sunny while we were at work. After lunch it rained in showers just like it would in April and you could feel it seeping into the ground and melting the pillar frost holding up the fake surface that forms in winter.