Chainsaw Therapy

My grandmother had a saying – you can let a lot of stress out the end of a hoe. With three boys, I imagine she understood that better than many.

For me, I find that a little chainsaw therapy goes a long way. That said, Saturday was a full bore release. I had a friend from church over, and we cut down 12 trees.

Our woodlot has not been managed for a long time, so much of our work was cleaning the undergrowth to allow the sun to reach the more viable trees. Most of the trees were poplars, but there was a nice hickory, which will make good wood for smoking next spring.

I have a theory about the stress properties of chainsaw therapy. Working with a chainsaw can be very dangerous. You have to be alert to all that is going on around you.

We had a situation on Saturday where one of the trees didn’t take the cut, and leaned in a dangerous direction. We had to stop with the chainsaw to put leverage on it with a rope.

Lots of stuff on the homestead, like the chainsaw, requires your concentration. It’s not hard, it’s just that you have to focus on it to make sure you don’t hurt yourself.

In that focus, there is relief from those things which seem important, but really steal your energy, and cause stress.

The recent storms have pushed a couple of trees that were standing dead on down, covering a couple of our trails.  That means more chainsaw time and despite the fact it is only Tuesday, I already need another therapy session.