This afternoon I took the new DeWalt chainsaw out for its first run. And while I found that it was much different than my gas-powered 16" Shindaiwa chainsaw (which needs some work to get it running again), I'm satisfied that it's going to easily do the work I need it to do. I absolutely love being able to pick it up, cut, and just set it back down...it goes when I say go, and stops when I say stop!
I started at the top of the hill and worked my way down.
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| The new saw, ready for its first cut. |
Excited to get started, I pushed the trigger lock and pulled the trigger - nothing. Maybe I didn't have the trigger lock pushed in enough. I adjusted my grip on the handle, making sure I was able to completely push in the trigger lock with my thumb and pulled the trigger again...nothing. "Oh, no!" I was thinking. Was the battery not in right? Had it not charged? Was the saw a dud?
Turned out the problem wasn't the saw at all. It was operator error (which is usually the case with me). The brake was engaged.
Once I figured that out and released the brake, the little saw buzzed to life! It cut through that first privet trunk in no time. It gave me great satisfaction to hear the trunk hit the ground with a "thud."
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| Cut and treated stump. |
A ring of glyphosate herbicide from the Green Shoots foaming dispenser, and hopefully that one's as good as dead!
After that, I just worked my way down the hillside, cutting and treating the privet I had previously cut the limbs off of. The new saw made it really easy - just make sure the rocks and dirt were moved away from the cutting area, cut, set the saw down, grab the herbicide dispenser, circle the stump with the foam then pick up the saw and move on to the next one.
I had picked up 20 black walnuts from the yard, and as I cut down a privet tree, I dug a little hole and buried a walnut. I piled up privet trunks around a couple of the buried nuts thinking that might help protect the young seedlings from being stepped on by the cattle. Others, I just buried right beside the trunks of some of the downed trees, or in the hole where the roots were ripped out of the ground when the tree fell.
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| Privet trunks making a protective frame around a walnut. |
Do cattle and deer eat walnut seedlings? If any of the walnuts sprout, I guess I'll find out.
I started work at around 2:50 pm this afternoon. The herbicide dispenser was only about half full, so I ran out and quit by 4:30 pm. In just under two hours, I was able to cut and treat all but one of the privet trees I had already cut limbs from. There were two privet trees I had started on, but they were really too big for my hand saw. Using the new chainsaw, it was easy to cut those limbs off, cut them off at the ground and treat them too. I think the biggest privet tree was around 6" to 7" in diameter at its widest point (it was an oval shaped trunk, so it wasn't that big all the way around!). Happily, the little DeWalt cut through even that biggest privet tree with no problems!
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| The first section cleared of privet. |