Danger in the cedars

I mentioned in an earlier post that when we were last at Roundrock, #1 Son and I finally took the chance to attack the two cedars that had fallen into the lake.

My worry about them was that because this stretch of the lake is comparatively shallow even at full pool - only a foot or two deep from a gently sloping shore - the trees in the water would allow the quick accumulation of leaves and other floating debris, effectively moving the dry land farther into the water.

Trees in the water near the shore as these were are considered ideal fish habitat, particularly for the fry who need a protected place to grow and learn all the things a young fish ought to know. Generally, though, I''ve seen this practice recommended for slightly deeper water. In any case, I wanted the cedars out of that particular part of the lake.

Clearing these trees has not been easy for us. When Seth and I had first tried to cut them, most of their bulk was still in water, so we could only trim at them a bit and save the big work for later. During that adventure, the chainsaw appeared to have overheated. It had suddenly stopped running and refused to start again. That was all the nudging we needed to give up the work on that very hot day.

When we returned this second time, the saw ran fine, at first. Seth was able to cut the two cedars into what we thought were easily managed chunks, as you see above. These chunks proved more difficult to manage than we expected. First, they were deceptively heavy. I don''t know if cedar is considered a dense wood, but it sure seems to be a heavy one. Second, those short bits of trunk were still attached to long branches, branches that had sat in the water and mud for months and so still managed to drop foul-smelling, prickly cedar needles down the backs of our shirts as we worked.

We began by dragging/throwing the cedar waste up the hill in the forest. This grew tiresome fast, so we decided to build a sort of brush pile just up from the shoreline (of a full lake, that is) in a dense clump of aromatic sumac growing there. That might prove to be a good idea. Or it might turn out to be an eyesore along the shoreline. I''ll let you know next year.

As I noted in my earlier post, we spent more time clearing than cutting the two cedars, but in perhaps a half hour the work was done. That left one blasted hickory tree to deal with. It had been blasted in the same ice storm that had defeated the cedars. As long as those two trees were resting in the lake, looking ugly, the hickory was overlooked. But once the cedars were gone, the snapped and half-fallen hickory stood out, calling for our aesthetic attentions.

I asked Seth to cut the hickory a few feet above the ground. The trunk is only six or seven inches in diameter there. He could cut it standing up, which was safer on the slope since if he needed to dart out of the way when the tree fell, he''d already be upright. Later he could cut the stump at ground level.

I stood in the muddy lake bed as he began cutting into the trunk, but I saw a bad problem as soon as the roar of the saw began. The chain was dangerously loose from the bar. This needs to be kept relatively snug against the bar, and I think our quick work with the dense cedars had wiggled it loose. That work had been so quick, though, that I didn''t think we needed to check the chain before taking on another small and quick task.

Before I could shout for him to stop, the chain was thrown from the bar and wrapped itself in the works. This has happened to me a few times, and it''s a shameful thing to admit. This is a dangerous situation and the potential for serious injury is great. We should have checked the chain before we started again. In the time it took for us to drag the cedar chunks into the forest, the chain would have cooled sufficiently for us to check it. A few turns of a screw would have been all that was needed to make the saw safe to use. Fortunately, Seth was not hurt.

There was more though. We couldn''t shut off the chainsaw engine. The on/off switch is right by the grip, handy for a quick flip of your thumb to shut it off. But despite doing that several times, the engine continued to run. The saw had a nearly full tank of gas, and this meant that we had to pour the fuel back into the storage can we had brought along. This is a clumsy job under the best circumstances, but out in the field, with the engine roaring in your ear and the chair and bar still too hot to touch, the menace notches up a bit. I managed to pour off the fuel, spilling only a little on the lake bed, and then we set the saw in an open area and let it run itself dry. I still need to work on the saw, setting the chain back on the bar and seeing if the on/off switch is faulty. I hope to get to it this weekend.

The blasted hickory still stands. I''m not sure how far Seth cut into it before the chain jumped, but I will probably try to finish the job with a bow saw next time.

Missouri calendar:

• Late summer molt produces drab plumage in robins and other birds.

Today in Missouri history:

• The Bank of St. Louis is chartered with capital of $163,000 in 1816.
• William Clarke Quantrill and his band of pro-Confederate guerillas raided the pro-Union town of Lawrence, Kansas, on this day in 1863, killing nearly 150 men and boys. This attack served to avenge the imprisonment of their wives, mothers, and sisters in Kansas City.
• Five cold-blooded killers stalked the governors mansion in Jefferson City on this date in 1967 with murder on their minds. They''d come to kill the thousands of starlings that were infesting the mansion grounds. Instead they killed purple martins by mistake and caused a furor that made international newspapers.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal    Source