Day: November 12, 2025

Of a sort, for me anyway. I drained all of the garbage premixed fuel from a big box store out of my Stihl ms170 chainsaw, ran some premium gas with Stihl branded oil through it, and after twenty or so pulls got the little mutt running. I let it idle for a couple of minutes, and then sawed some real small limb trimmings, and then let it idle for a few more minutes. So far — it is running, the chain spins, the bar oil oils itself, and the choke & shut off both work a treat. My chain is full as all get out, so I need to spend some time sharpening it, or buy a third and brand new chain, and I can get to sawing up some of those over sized logs at the farm to get me back to chopping in no time. I’m told the wood splits easier in the cold versus the mid fall twenties we had all September and October.

I am very happy about the saw not being seized up (so far), and running without any awful knocking, grinding, whining, or running away out of control. That pre mixed big box fuel is essentially lighter fluid masquerading as pre mixed gasoline. It nearly started a fire in my Echo weed eater, and the saw didn’t gar for it much either. I need to get some trigger parts to repair the Echo weed eater, but it still runs, and works around my yard. Good stuff these name brand tools from the early 2000’s.

Once I get the tires on the van swapped, I can head back to the farm for some splitting & sawing action in the mornings once again. It does not appear as though work will pick up before the winter break, and the holidays. More belt tightening is on the horizon!

Woah Nelly do I stink of gasoline right now. Hand soap stands no chance against this kind of stink. Problem with draining bad gas, and mixing new, and pouring new is that the fumes, and the splashes will get on you real good. Gloves be damned! Not my finest odour to sport about town, but I finally checked on the saw, and now I know for sure it’s not totally fuckered (so far). I foresee a few minutes worth of chain sharpening in my future that’s for certain.

The new van has four key lock lug nuts to deter theft of tire and/or rims, so this adds a little extra time to the task. Plus the underside rails only have four very small, round holes for the jack to go, so I have to wheel the jack around a bunch to make sure I nail that spot dead on, otherwise the door, and surrounding superficial trim will buckle. That’s not good. I have the twelve tonne bottle jack for this type of situation, but I’m not as comfortable with it, as I am the rolling three tonne floor jack. I made a little wooden jig to adapt the floor jack to those holes, so I’ll give that a whirl this go around!

Anyway, I won’t do it until tomorrow or Friday anyway, as I don’t want to be in the rain/snow for 90 minutes while I make my back sore bending over, and wrenching on lug nuts. Thursday and Friday should be sunny, above zero degrees Celsius, and be generally more dry than today. All solid check marks in the “do this task tomorrow” column. I also need to wash these tires and rims before I store them so having slightly warmer temperatures to keep my bucket of water from freezing is a plus!

If I had a whole lot of money, I’d want a separate shop where I could also add a hydraulic lift in to one of the car bays. Would make oil changes, tire changes that much simpler. But then we’d have to buy a whole new house with separate shop in order to do that, so… Unlikely. I’m not all that mechanically inclined, but I’d take all the help I could get if I had a bunch of extra zeros, commas, and such before the decimal place. Dream on! Aaàaaaaahhh! A little Aerosmith for yah bud.

It is Wednesday today. Which doesn’t mean all that much, except 8 know both kids have after school programming tonight. Also means we haven’t gone climbing in two weeks. And I have no split wood since before Halloween, because we had to get the Dahlias bulbs up out of the ground instead. If I don’t get my chainsaw up and running, I will run out of suitable wood to split by hand sooner rather than later. I see a gas powered splitter has gone on sale at Canadian Tire, but I’m not looking to start a new business, so I will not break down and buy it, no sir! Even if it would give me lots to do over the next couple months… No, no. Not going to happen. I’m not making enough this year to spend roughly $1,600.00 on a gas powered tool I can’t tow around myself. No hitch, and no ball on either vehicle. Oh well!

The youngest was making a real stink about not wanting to go to school today. Wouldn’t say why, just that she didn’t want to go. Not ill, not over tired, no tests, quizzes or projects come due. No conflicts between friends, foes, or adversaries to concern herself with. Just adamant that she did not want to go. Sorry babe, you gotta. Education is built on repetition, and being present. Building upon what came before. You start missing pieces and you will end up all the worse off for it.

It snowed way too early this year. Three days in and I’m sick of it. I love how it makes my Christmas lights look on the trees, and house, but otherwise, nah, no more I’m good. Until Christmas Eve that is. Gimme a white Christmas then it can fuck right off.

You know what my issue with Christmas is? We have six weeks of build up, cold weather, even snow and for what!?! Christmas is only four days into the official start of winter. Once it’s done you’re left with 3.5 months of miserable cold conditions, grey bleakness, and a horrid, horrendous, abusive cold. All the lights, fun and pageantry is long gone, and you still have months, plural, left to go of this awful season. Just awful.