Scope Creep

When I started this firewood project a couple of years ago I thought it would only be a small endeavor.

I had believed that I would be working at the landing during the few summer days of logging, cleaning up the extra bits from what was left after Mike had gotten the valuable logs out of each tree length stick he hauled down out of the forest. Super sized limbs, a few butt cuts and long spindly tops were what I had envisioned. I saw myself as the cleaner upper, salvaging what would have been slash for a large logging operation and making it into a by-product commodity that would fill my own wood shed and perhaps some extra for deliveries for the Oregon Woodland Co-Op. In jest my official title became Firewood Reclamation Specialist.

These days, I am more apt to be out in the forest proper rather than at the bottom of the hill in the landing. I get to be close by and sometimes help when the tall trees are felled. Several areas of the woods are in need of thinning, by walking through the underbrush with head tipped up is the best was to spot those trees that are damaged, growing with imperfections, being crowded by other trees or struggling with stress/sickness.

Since I use a much smaller chainsaw than Mike when falling those tall trees, I get to assist with limbing the monster were it fell. My job usually begins at the tip of the tree while Mike, with the big saw, works up from the butt. Most times I cannot see the base of the tree or Mike while he is inching closer with each limb but I can hear the saw to judge when we are getting close to having the tree limbed. These big trees are too massive for our equipment to drag from the far reaches of the property to landing still being full length. Most times Mike can only take a log or two at a time which leaves me peacefully to enjoy the forest for long stretches of time.

I still have time to work in the landing making firewood from those smaller trees that Mike hauls out of the woods but only in smaller time segments than what the original firewood project plan had scheduled. So although my title of Firewood Reclamation Specialist is still valid and we are producing and delivering more firewood bundles than originally planned, the more apt moniker should be Gopher or Go-fer (as in “Go Fer more wedges”, or “bring the gas and oil jugs to the saw” or “put a choker on that log”). I do what I can, and I have to say it is much more fun than spending the day in the landing.