Fiskars hatchet, Corona saw and a downed tree limb

This morning as I was getting ready for work, I heard a small crash outside. When I looked, a truck had nailed my neighbors low hanging branch, doing a bit of ad-hoc pruning.

He drug the branch off to the side of the road, fixed his passenger side mirror and drove off. Great.

After calling my neighbor, I offered to clean it up if I could keep the wood. It was a rather big branch; I figured I could help her and have a bit of extra wood to feed the fire place for my trouble.

After work, I came home and got out my Fiskars 14 inch hatchet and my 8 inch Corona folding saw. I must be the last person in the neighborhood who doesn't own a chain saw. Either way, I got started at 7pm; the buzz of a chain saw seems a bit rude that late.

To drag the branch out of the street and into my yard where I can work on it, as I don't relish chopping wood while cars are whizzing by, I used some line ( rated for 280lbs safe working load ) to rig a timber hitch.

It was a 25 foot length; rather than having to fiddle about with coiling the line ( or just leaving it free ) I tied it into a chain sennit. Great knot, that. Also known as chain shortening or bugler's braid ( at least according to my knot book ) it shortens a line considerably but also allows one to play out the free end as needed quickly and without tangles. I used the chain sennit as a grip with an unfurled free end as a timber hitch.

That all rigged, I drug it out of the street and up on my front lawn. Took a bit, since there's still snow outside. Hard to melt off when the high is 18F.

Took about three hours, but between the saw and the hatchet that tree limb is now on my wood pile, with the twigs and branches given to another neighbor who stopped by to see what the crazy bastard was doing on his lawn at 9pm. He'll feed them to his fire pit.

So, the Fiskars Hatchet and the Corona Saw get a "highly recommended" from me. They stood up to a bit of use, yet again.

PS: Ok, I've linked to Amazon in this post. Note that I'm not making a cent off those links; they're there so everyone who reads this knows what I'm talking about ( provided the links keep working, of course ;) ).