The Devil

With experience, has come an awareness that a job you set out to do is a mere slice of the adventure that awaits.

A small walnut tree had grown up between our shed and the neighbor’s fence. In preparation for replacing the roof on the shed, I thought it would be a good time to remove the tree.

I stood on the roof of the shed and used a reciprocating saw on the limbs – pulling at the branches so they would fall on my side of the fence. The green wood of this tree was smooth and soft to cut through and smelled pleasant. It took about 15 minutes until I had the tree knocked down to size and could safely saw through the trunk of the tree.

It turned out that there was much more tree there than was obvious and so I ended up with a large pile of debris. My thoughts turned to disposal of the body.

On the property, we have inherited a supply of power tools and machines. One of these machines is a wood chipper that I call The Devil.

The first thing to know about The Devil is that it isn’t obvious how long it sat in the shed before being called into service. Starting it might not be possible.

I pulled on the starter cord. It was very heavy; not like a lawnmower. It had heft and the engine didn’t turn very fast. My shoulders started to become sore after pulling on that string maybe 20 times and so it was time to diagnose some kind of problem.

A new spark plug and a half a can of starter fluid and about an hour of working on it did get the motor to start. Once it was running it ran smoothly and strong. When the engine was warm, it would start again with the choke partially closed, but when cold, it is still a stubborn beast.