Fiskars Are My Friends
16/07/10 02:33 Filed in: Garden
It's 2:30 in the morning and I can't sleep. My body
aches all over and I think I'm a little bit
heat-stroked (if that's a word).
You see, we have our friends Nicola and Rob visiting for a couple of days and it's been really fun. But Rob, who is knowledgeable about all things natural, has also introduced me to a nifty new tool: a set of Fiskars loppers that can cut two-inch-thick branches off trees effortlessly. These things are magnificent. I wish I had them last summer when I started trying to get our tree problem under control. What took me days then would probably take only hours with these new loppers.
Rob also loves to prune trees (it's part of his
job back in Ontario) and he and I decided yesterday
to tackle the massive cedar trees that dominate our
front yard. Our goal: to raise the skirts of these
out-of-control trees to six feet off the ground and
to clean up what's underneath.
With the loppers, the remains of a Fiskars pruning saw (we managed to break two of the wretched little things in the course of two hours) and Rob's expertise, we managed to get the job done in a single afternoon. It's really quite amazing. And it's stunning how much wood we ended up with lying around the front lawn (okay, piled up around the front lawn).
Unfortunately for me, we decided to do this in
30-degree weather with the sun beating down on us.
Unfortunately as well, Rob is in much better shape to
do this kind of work than I am. So now I'm paying for
it, too sore and queasy to sleep.
But the cedars look great. And I'm looking forward to using those amazing loppers to dice up into firewood the branches we cut off (in the photo, the pile of branches is at right and extends at least twice the length of our carport). We've got enough to feed our fireplace for at least a year or two, once the wood has dried properly.
I just have to make sure I take it easy and don't push myself too hard. It's great to make progress but it won't help anything if the work kills me.
You see, we have our friends Nicola and Rob visiting for a couple of days and it's been really fun. But Rob, who is knowledgeable about all things natural, has also introduced me to a nifty new tool: a set of Fiskars loppers that can cut two-inch-thick branches off trees effortlessly. These things are magnificent. I wish I had them last summer when I started trying to get our tree problem under control. What took me days then would probably take only hours with these new loppers.
With the loppers, the remains of a Fiskars pruning saw (we managed to break two of the wretched little things in the course of two hours) and Rob's expertise, we managed to get the job done in a single afternoon. It's really quite amazing. And it's stunning how much wood we ended up with lying around the front lawn (okay, piled up around the front lawn).
But the cedars look great. And I'm looking forward to using those amazing loppers to dice up into firewood the branches we cut off (in the photo, the pile of branches is at right and extends at least twice the length of our carport). We've got enough to feed our fireplace for at least a year or two, once the wood has dried properly.
I just have to make sure I take it easy and don't push myself too hard. It's great to make progress but it won't help anything if the work kills me.