As The Crow Flies

I had my tape measure in my hand and was loading up my pickup to go out and cut some more wood, when I started thinking about how much more functional my Nissan extended cab pickup would be if I removed the passenger seat.

I thought there might even be enough space to stretch out and lay down there. I measured the space and sure enough, there looked to be enough room for a person who was 5’ 7�.

When I try to recline the seats back in my truck, the headrest touches the back of the cab, keeping it from fully reclining and making for an uncomfortable night.

I looked at the headrest and thought, “It would be good if you could remove the head rest.� Then I noticed a little button on the side of the headrest and pushed it and the headrest popped out.

Once the headrest was removed, the seat reclined fully.

I  got a pillow and reclined in my truck for a bit. I laid there for a while and imagined living in the cab of my Nissan.

After awhile I got up and went back to my woodcutting.

I got a Cabela’s Alaskan Outfitter Frame and Harness.

My use for it will be to haul a propane tank, hauling water from the spring up to my cabin, and if I don’t get all my wood in before the snow comes, I can carry my chainsaw out into the woods, cut some wood and haul the wood back to my cabin.

It says it will carry 175 lbs. I experimented carrying different stuff around. The heaviest load was probably about 75lbs and it carried it nicely.

It has a shelf with straps, but if your load isn’t stable enough, there is also a orange “pod” that pulls out of the bottom of the shelf and adds more straps.

The high bar at the top is removable.

It costs 99.99 plus shipping.  Cabela says it weighs a whopping 6.2 lbs (2.81 kilos).

When I break the wooden handle on my ax or sledge hammer, I put the ax head in my fire to burn the stub out of the head.

I’ve been cutting up this big pine tree today. It doesn’t look that big in the picture but I got quite a bit of wood just from limbing it.

It was up on a piece of my property that was touched by fire. I guess it didn’t make it, because it fell over last winter.

It’s pretty lucky to find a big tree, already seasoned, laying on it’s side, up off the ground, close to the road.

So far, I am taking really good care of my new chainsaw and we are getting along fine.

The first time I hiked the PCT, I didn’t use a trail name; I felt it was a tradition that belonged to the social, more goofy, AT hiker.

The problem is, if you don’t have a trail name, other people will try to name you–as if you are some woodland orphan they found and get to name.

If you are a woman over 40, young men will try to tag you with a name that has ma, mother, mom, or granny in it. Other hikers will try to name you after some mistake you made or some insignificant detail about yourself.

It _is_ easier to remember people who have trail names. So when picking out a trail name, you may want to try for something unique.

If it is unique you are after, animal names don’t work well because there are always too many “Crows” and “Bears” on the trail. The names of the characters of the Hobbit are usually over represented as well. Cross off anything to do with feet; there are always lots of people named after their sore, tired, stinky, clumsy, blistered, or swift feet. Having references to how slow, fast, light, or heavy you hike is also overdone.

I think it would be awkward to introduce myself with a long or excessively goofy name. Foreign words that are hard to pronounce aren’t a good choice either; I once hiked with a woman for 2 weeks before I could pronounce her name and even then I could never spell it right.

Once you have a trail name, people will stop trying to name you. Making up a story about how you got your tail name is a plus.

Now free, online, and available for download.  http://www.mrbill.net/survival/

I resigned myself to the probability that I will always need a chainsaw in my life. So, I went down to “Tim’s Saws” and for a little less then a ticket to Peru, bought a new one.

I got the Sthil 250c. It has an “easy start” feature on it, which is truly a nice feature. It is really easy to start. I wanted the 280 but Tim said it didn’t come with the “easy start” feature.

Tim spent a lot of time showing me how to take care of my new chainsaw. That’s the thing about a chainsaw, it isn’t like a blender where you push a button and it does what it’s supposed to do; you’re always messing with a chainsaw.

He said, “Don’t even try to sharpen it yourself, because you won’t get it right.” Normally I would have been insulted, but from past experiences, I knew he was probably right. He sold me two extra chains and told me to change the chain when it gets dull and then bring it back to him for sharpening.

His most stressed points were, to always use fresh premium gas and never cut with a dull chain.

The reason the bar is upside down is to remind me to turn the bar over after cutting every cord.

Other people love their chainsaws. They take good care of them. When they cut wood, they cut it in identical sized pieces and lovingly stack it. I have always treated my chainsaw with coolness, just cut up my wood in willy-nilly sizes, and would just as soon throw it in a big pile with a tarp over it.

I’m trying to change. I’m trying to develop the enthusiasm and interest necessary to keep a chainsaw running properly and my wood pile full. A really cold winter without enough wood, would probably do it.

I resupplied as I went; never sending myself any food. I did, however, have a bounce boxed filled with guide book sections and nutritional supplements that I mailed along about every 500 miles.

I liked the challenge of putting together a resupply from what I could find in the little stores and the freedom from trying to make post office deadlines.

Having to get to the next post office before it closes for the weekend can be a good motivator for getting a lot of miles in, but it would get old if I had to do it too often. I really hate having to get anything in the mail; it always thwarts my freedom.

Resupply at the big stores was a real treat and I would walk out of town with multi-grain tortillas, deli cheese and meat, fresh fruit and veggies, dark chocolate, Crystal Light energy drink, and my water bottles filled with Odowalla juices.

My resupply list.

After checking all the bulletin boards and not finding anyone selling firewood, I resigned myself to cutting firewood but then I couldn’t get the saw started.

I found someone selling some wood on the local classifieds. I called him and asked about buying some firewood. He said that he had sold all he had, but as soon as he could buy or borrow a chainsaw he would start cutting more. He took my order and said he would get back to me when he got some wood cut but that the price would go up once winter was here.

I don’t know, I could go buy a new chainsaw and get busy and cut some wood or it may be simpler to just buy a ticket to Peru and go away for the winter.

I met several hikers on the trail who despite using the chin straps on their hats, had their hats blow away.

Using the same technique I used to keep my umbrella from blowing away, I secured my hat to my shirt: I unbuttoned a button on my shirt, wrapped the chin strap around it, and re-buttoned it.

If your hat doesn’t have a chin strap, a “cap leash” will keep your hat from blowing away.

When taking refuge from the hot mid day sun, on the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail), I would lay under a tree or a bush. If I was bothered by sun light filtering through the leaves, I would unfurl my silver coated trekking umbrella and block out the rogue sun beams.

To keep the umbrella from blowing away as I napped, I unbuttoned a button on my shirt, wrapped the strap of the umbrella around my button and re-buttoned it.

I went to the Barter Fair yesterday. In past years, there were people with big loads of firewood for sale and I was hoping to buy some and have it delivered. No such luck. No one seems to have wood for sale around here, this year.

I have lots of land and lots of dead trees I could cut up. I don’t like cutting wood. It’s loud and frustrating and I always need to be messing with the chainsaw. Plus, I worry about sustaining an injury that could end up costing me a lot more than a couple loads of firewood.

One thing I do like, is going around picking up small sticks for my fire. The fire I get from the sticks if very hot. In past years I have wanted to just go out and only pick up sticks for my firewood, but I bowed to others who told me that I needed to fire up a chainsaw and cut big wood. But what did people do before they had chainsaws: they picked up sticks.

Yesterday there were some snow flurries.

The worst thing about fall is the bugs. My cabin fills with wasps and stink bugs. Neither of those bugs are that bad unless you step on them.

I got up this morning and in the dark stepped on a wasp; it stung me on the bottom of my foot.

Once, while I slept, a stink bug landed on my forehead. In my sleep, I reached up, grabbed the bug, and threw it off; the stink woke me up and I had to go wash my forehead. They don’t really stink that bad. It smells like instant apple cider mix and they don’t spray it unless you bother them.

Sometimes, the bugs are so bad, I set up my travel tent and sleep in it.

During the winter and spring, I carry the bugs outside; during the fall, I would have no time for anything else and they probably would just crawl back in. Twice a day I have been turning on my generator, plugging in my new shop vac, and vacuuming them up.

My cabin in BC has a plywood floor. I worried about putting wood flooring down because of the humidity of coastal BC, but hated the plywood. A friend told me about an art gallery that put down a paper bag floor. She couldn’t remember how they did it, so I just experimented with it.

I bought rolls of brown paper–two different thicknesses. Then I ripped a jagged piece off the roll, crumbled it up, dipped it in yellow deck stain, brushed the floor with clear water based polyurethane, smoothed the piece of paper down over the polyurethane, and brushed over the top of it with more polyurethane.

Then I went on to the next piece. Sometimes, I would dip the crumbled wad into the polyurethane for more dramatic lines. The different grades of paper gave even more variants.

I saved the straight pieces for around the edges.

After I was all done, I put several more coats of clear polyurethane over the top. It took me a whole week, working all day, to finish a 500 sq ft. floor, but time is what I have lots of.

I got my chainsaw running so I don’t have an excuse to not cut wood. I cut some. I’ll cut some tomorrow and probably right up to when the snow flies, but I think I may buy some too. I was planning on buying some at the Barter Faire but I think it may have been this weekend.

Laen Finehack taught me this and I had an opportunity to use it this morning. If you grab a Sharpie out of your pen can instead of your whiteboard marker, and start drawing on your whiteboard with it, just grab your whiteboard marker and draw over it and it will come off.