I had an epiphany this morning…

…a blinding flash of insight, informing me I don’t need to do one chore I’d planned for this morning, because that chore has been rendered obsolete.

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This is my wood cutting table. All summer it’s been at the Lair to help with construction, but I was going to move it to Ian’s this morning. I normally keep it there because he’s never there and has lots of electricity. In the autumn I mount a chop saw on it and cut up pieces of pallet to stove length and toss them in the Jeep trailer. So here’s the way the process works…

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I take the Jeep trailer to the place where I store my pallets. Load as many as will fit in the trailer.

I unload the trailer at Ian’s place, where I have the table and a chop saw.

I cut the pallets apart with a Sawzall, then (careful of nails) feed the bits into the chop saw and cut them to stove lengths.

I toss the stovewood into the trailer, drive it to the Lair, unload the wood into a wheelbarrow and stack it in the woodshed.

I throw my back out at least once during this annual process, losing a good week’s work. Through a mix-up at the factory I was issued a 63-year-old spine, and during wood-cutting season it shows.

Now here’s the part about the epiphany: I have a cordless reciprocating saw that, apparently now that it’s broken in, runs for useful lengths of time on a battery charge. So I can cut up the pallets right where they’re stored. I already knew that. But now, or when that Honda generator gets here, I can either do the whole process at that remote site – inconvenient but it means I only move wood once – Or I can leave the wood cutting table at the Lair, haul the cut-up pallets to the Lair and cut them up right next to the woodshed.

Either way I’m only moving wood once and never big heavy pallets.

eureka
I like this new plan.

About Joel

You shouldn't ask these questions of a paranoid recluse, you know.
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3 Responses to I had an epiphany this morning…

  1. feralfae says:

    Oh, I’d definitely vote for doing the whole think at the storage site, then hauling home the finished lengths. Saves all that handling twice.
    Neat.
    **

  2. Joel says:

    I came to the same conclusion, feralfae, for a reason that slipped my mind yesterday: cutting up the pallets inevitably shakes out nails all over the place. I have a pick-up magnet I use on the site after the job is complete, but you can be pretty sure you haven’t got everything and they become a tire hazard. Better to do the whole job where I store the pallets, because nobody ever wants to drive there.

  3. MJR says:

    It’s a good thing to be working smarter as one gets older which is something I have yet to fully grasp.

    The nails/tires issue hits home. It seems that almost every time I do a dump run I’m having to deal with a nail or screw in a tire. On the plus side, I have taken heed of your sage words about tire repair so it’s not as big an issue as it once was.

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