At this time, reading press releases from machine manufacturers and looking for information about carbon storage and protected forests, I realize that I really miss the forest, and working with my chainsaw. So, this article is more of a blog entry with some personal confessions and reflections about (my) life in the forest.
I miss my chainsaws and the forest – the best working place there is
My logging season this winter was short but intense. Already in April I had to leave the forest and go in to the office which felt good – for a while. I never thought that the forest and the noice of the chainsaw could be so missed!
It started just before Christmas. A nice second thinning in a spruce stand, not much snow and comfortable temperature. That’s life! Two days a week I worked here and on Saturdays I took down a row of old spruce trees to create a chance for birch and other hardwoods to grow along a small creek in my girlfriend’s forest.
It’s easy to take the good life for granted but everything has an end. In this case it was a deadline for delivery of timber that marked the end. As I had just a few days pre-commercial thinning to do, the season ended shortly after that deadline, too early.
Modern city life
As I live in the center of a town I have no need for firewood. I honestly don’t know anyone who uses firewood for heating anymore. That has become outdated. Even on our family estate the houses are heated by earth heating, so we don’t need any firewood other than for the fire places. The firewood for them is made by the inhabitants of the houses themselves. Well, firewood making is not logging anyway if you ask me …
The next season will come around – I’ll be ready
I guess I will just have to keep on struggling with writing and all the other things that I do, and wait for the next logging season that I hope will start in November this year. I could start earlier, but the moose hunt is going on in October so the forest owners wants me to wait until earliest in November.
I love my chainsaws, but I’m not the type of guy who cleans and polishes them. A chainsaw is a tool that should do the job under all weathers and conditions. I don’t care if the saw is dirty. The chain should be razor sharp and the engine should run as if every second was the last. When the season starts, the saws starts. They have done so every year, both the old and the new one. I count on that also in the future …
