12/12-14/17 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

On the way I made the annual deliveries of Ellen's Christmas jam to the Camp Serendipity neighbors. I arrived back at Camp Serendipity at 1:00. The same snow that was on the ground last week was still there. I don't think it had thawed at all. I brought my gear up to the cabin, hoisted the flag, started a fire, and then had my lunch and a nap.

When I got up, I took the chainsaw, a hammer, two wedges, my earmuffs, and a rectangular piece of cardboard in the wheelbarrow into the woods. I tried a couple of new techniques for bucking a big log, one of which I learned from a YouTube video and the other I dreamed up myself.

My innovation was the rectangular piece of cardboard. In the past, I had real trouble bucking a big log square especially if the log was on a slope and I was limited as to where I could stand. I just couldn't eyeball a square cut. And I still don't know whether my errors were on a vertical axis or a horizontal axis. They both usually looked OK to me while I was cutting, but when the round was cut loose, it was always painfully obvious that it wasn't anywhere near square.

So, my new method is to lay the piece of cardboard on top of the log about an inch from the end and square it up. If the end of the log is already square, then the edge of the cardboard is easy to place parallel to it. In any case, the two edges of the cardboard parallel to the axis of the log can also be used to align the cardboard.

With the cardboard in place, I get the saw running and start a kerf about an inch away from the other end of the cardboard making sure the bar is parallel to that edge. That also makes for uniform firewood lengths. Being only an inch away, it is easy to get a good alignment. Then I cut a horizontal kerf just about a half-inch deep and let off the trigger to stop the saw, holding it in that position.

Then, with my left hand I pick up the cardboard and hold it vertical with the bottom edge on the surface of the log at right angles to the bar. That gives me a square reference vertically which I sight on and twist the saw so that the bar is also vertical. I hold the saw in that position, set the cardboard down, and proceed to start the cut maintaining that plane. If I am concerned that I am off, I can always check it again using the cardboard as a square. Once the plane of the kerf is established, I continue to complete the cut, and in every case so far, I have made nice square cuts.

The trick I learned on YouTube is a way of preventing the log from seizing the bar when it finally sags. I used to start with a plunge cut, and then try to anticipate how the log will finally move and either cut from the bottom, or from the top, or even to make an oversized kerf to make room for the sag. I always had trouble.

I also used to try to start bucking by first cutting a longer log with several rounds in it. That meant that I had to measure and lay out the cuts for the individual rounds ahead of time. I would select one of the cut sites to start with, usually one where the log was off the ground at that point, so I wouldn't cut into the dirt. Then I would buck the log at that point hoping to do it without getting the saw stuck. With the shorter log loose, I could then buck all of its rounds by making each cut partway through and then rolling the log in order to complete each cut. I did a lot of hard, unnecessary work doing it that way.

The new way is to buck one round at a time off the end of the log no matter where the log was hitting the ground. You make all cuts down from the top using the squaring technique I already described, but the new innovation is to stop the cut as soon as the bar is buried six inches or so down into the log. Then you drive a wedge down into the kerf above the saw bar and hammer it in very tight. That will provide sufficient compression force to the top of the log so that the log can't sag until the cut is all the way through. And when that happens, the end of the log will fall, if it happened to be bearing on the end you just cut, but the round is now free to fall away, and it can't pinch the saw bar.

If I am not sure whether the log is bearing on the end I am cutting, I use the wedge in that way just in case. But if the log is cantilevered so that the end round is off the ground, then I can skip the wedge and just cut the round loose as normal.

Using these techniques, I used a full tank of chainsaw gas and bucked fourteen rounds from the big fir log I have been harvesting and that is lying between the sequoias Earl, John, and Larry.

As it happened, the chainsaw ran out of gas just as it was getting so dark that I could barely see my way to wheel my tools back out of the woods and return to the cabin. I had bucked the log almost to John. I was exhilarated.

Not only did I have an adequate supply of firewood for the rest of the winter, but I had proved that my new methods worked very well. Those rounds all have nice square cuts. And even though they are lying there in the woods, they are accessible in any weather. If there is little or no snow on the ground, I can wheelbarrow them out. If there is deep snow, I can easily dig out each round, hitch a rope to each one and drag it out over the snow. I have done that many times and I think it is even easier than wheelbarrowing.

On Wednesday morning after breakfast, Dave called, and we had another enjoyable conversation. Since the weather was still so nice, I decided to spend another hour or so in the woods. I repeated the previous day's plan, but with more confidence this time. I started by filing the chain, which needed it, and I filed the depth gauges down as well. Then I wheeled my cardboard rectangle, a couple wedges, a 5-lb hammer, earmuffs, and my chainsaw back into the woods. Then I used up a tank of gas and bucked up another eighteen rounds. I was only about six feet from Larry. Since I am working toward the butt of the log, the diameter keeps increasing. At the end, the log was almost too big for my 20-inch bar. I had to reach over the top and down under the front in order to cut all the way through, but that was easy.

I think I got more wood cut from one tank of gas this time because my chain was sharper. I left all thirty-two of the rounds in the woods and returned to the cabin to work on my baseboards.

I started by moving stuff out of the utility room to expose the Grid 1 wall and give me a couple feet of room to work. Then I used my handy-dandy saw in its carriage to cut the kerf in the Grid A1-B1 log wall from end to end. Since there were no obstructions, it went quickly and easily. Then I cleaned up the sawdust and took a break for lunch and a nap.

When I got up, I tackled the relatively hard job of chiseling out the notch under the kerf. It is hard only because it is so awkward lying flat on the floor in a confined space with barely enough room to handle the Bulldog. The thing is pretty heavy, and one hand needs to lift it up so that the chisel is up tight against the kerf. The other hand has to somehow squeeze the trigger. Sometimes I have to use the back of a finger to push the trigger; other times I have to use my thumb, and many times I can't grip the pistol grip the way you normally would. But I have learned little tricks so that I was able to chisel out the entire notch without too much problem.

With the notch cut, I cleaned up the chip mess by adding them to my collection of "curly fries" that I use for starting fires in the stove. Then I prepared the baseboards so that the ends would properly mate with the bathroom baseboard on the right and the corner of the wall on the left. Then I nailed the baseboards in place and cleaned up the sawdust and chips for the last time.

On Thursday morning, I rearranged the things in the utility room so that I could work on the Grid A wall. There is the longer section to the right of the back door, and a short section to the left. I started on the right side and sawed the kerf in the log. Then I cleaned up the sawdust mess.

Then I got the Bulldog out and started cutting the notch. I made a few cuts and then changed my mind. Bill had told me that he and Cam might come up to Camp Serendipity next week and if they did, I wanted them to see the Bulldog in operation cutting a notch. Since I was on the last wall, this would be their last opportunity. So, I cleaned up the few chips and then left the Bulldog lying on the floor.

I replaced some of the stuff that was against the Grid A1-B1 wall and then cleaned up the place to make it more inviting to visitors. I dusted the loft stairs, some of the furniture and window ledges, vacuumed the first floor, and swept off the front porch. I always feel good about having the cabin nice and clean like that.

I left for home at 1:00 feeling very good about the week's work.