My logging project

Let me begin this account by stating that I do not recommend that you try this under any circumstances. Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? Here’s what I’m talking about.

Last week, my wife had a medical appointment that I was driving her to. We were leaving the house without a whole lot of extra time before the appointment. I went out first to start my truck and get ready to go. After walking out the front door, I noticed an approximately ten-inch dead cottonwood tree (killed during the Miller’s Reach fire in 1996) had blown down overnight and was laying across the driveway, effectively blocking our ability to leave.

I was not able to use my chainsaw, still needing the walking boot and crutches to move around. I studied the situation and realized the thinner top of the tree was on the edge of the driveway and laying flat on the ground. I decided to try backing my truck over the trunk to get out of the driveway.

My truck is a three-quarter ton, extended cab, diesel engine, heavy-duty, four-wheel drive vehicle, so I wasn’t too concerned about getting over the trunk. I didn’t want to do any damage to the vehicle, however, so I very slowly backed out along the edge of the driveway and over the tree. As the truck passed over the log, I heard a sharp crack. I continued over and slightly past the tree, stopped the truck, and got out to see what happened.

Rather than just climbing over the tree, the weight of the truck broke the top of the tree off where the wheels had passed over. Part of the broken treetop had jumped up and bounced off the truck. No damage occurred to the vehicle, and we were free to go on to the appointment.

After we got home, I was planning to get the chainsaw and cut the remaining trunk up into small enough sections that my wife could move them off the driveway (I was told not to do any lifting while wearing the walking boot and using crutches). However, my wife wouldn’t hear of me using the chainsaw. It wasn’t worth the argument to object. Time to figure out Plan B.

I asked her to get an ax I had in the garage along with a folding chair so I could sit down and try to chop the log into pieces. Naturally, the ax was dull, and I didn’t get far into cutting a notch about half-way down the length of the tree before I wore out. Now what?

I thought about it for a minute and had my wife slide a section of the broken top under the main trunk right next to where I had the small notch cut. I got in the truck and very slowly ran the front tire up onto the trunk on the other side of the notch from where my wife had placed the log chunk. I was hoping to break the trunk so we could then move the smaller pieces of trunk off the driveway.

It worked! The trunk snapped cleanly in half at the notch, and we were able to move the rest of the pieces off the driveway (I did help move one chunk of tree). Again, I wouldn’t recommend you try this, but in our case, it worked with no damage to the truck.

On another note, I had an appointment with my ankle surgeon earlier this week and received some great news. I had walked into his office wearing the walking boot and using two crutches. After he examined my ankle and studied the x-rays taken earlier in the visit, he told me he wanted me out of the walking boot and into regular shoes. He also said to lose the crutches and use a cane to help with balance.

I am well on my way to being able to walk “normally” again. The whole ankle situation won’t be totally healed for at least a year, but my mobility even now is dramatically improved over what it was prior to the surgery. I’m already planning a couple of trips in the RV this fall and hoping to get out and do some fishing at the local lake near where I live. I might even get out to do some silver salmon fishing once the fish arrive.

I’ll be reading Andy Couch’s column to stay abreast of that situation. You don’t really appreciate something until you lose it. I know!