Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[Baymule]

I like smaller burn piles that can burn in one day. If you have major land clearing as GB did, then you have the big piles. Sometimes here we get a pretty big pile, due to burn bans, but I like to get them started, burnt and out by nightfall. I don't want my fire to escape and go somewhere I don't want it to go. Dry grass around the fire will start a grass fire, best to drag it down like GB said.

The answer to your smart, not dumb question, is whatever size you are comfortable with.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

I like smaller burn piles that can burn in one day. If you have major land clearing as GB did, then you have the big piles. Sometimes here we get a pretty big pile, due to burn bans, but I like to get them started, burnt and out by nightfall. I don't want my fire to escape and go somewhere I don't want it to go. Dry grass around the fire will start a grass fire, best to drag it down like GB said.

The answer to your smart, not dumb question, is whatever size you are comfortable with.

X2!

 

[CntryBoy777]

I have both here.....constant and spots....small scars heal faster and green up an area for a season or 2....we have quite a few trees, so there are always limbs and branches falling....I will not tote limbs far....so, the amount to be burned is what fluctuates it.....oh, and I was always told to never build a fire under any conditions if ya don't have confidence in your ability to control it.....

 

[greybeard]

I do nowadays build some smallish piles and fires, but if I have a lot of small piles relatively close together, I prefer to push them into 1-3 bigger ones before lighting them off. The fewer I have burning, the less risk of letting one get out of control and nowadays, how much stuff I have to get rid of dictates the size anyway.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Calling all chainsaw experts!

My wife and I are currently thinning out the shrubs and trees along a small creek that is close to the drive. (I'll post before and after pictures when we get finished.) I have a Stihl MS 251 CB-E chainsaw whose chain needs sharpening, due to all of the trees I have cut. I tried sharpening it yesterday using a 4 mil sized file. Didn't work. I looked at the Stihl web site for the specs on it, hoping that they would identify the size file I needed. While they didn't specify the file size in terms that I could understand, they did have this for the chain: "OILOMATIC® CHAIN .325 RM3". What does that mean?

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[greybeard]

RM means Rapid Micro which is just one of Stihl's chain designations. .325 is the chain size.

Different tooth pitch and cutting profiles mean a higher or shorter cutting tooth and the higher the tooth, the bigger the file needs to be. On the cutting tooth, there should be a code number embossed. I think it's now 1 thru 8.
A '2' for instance is the code number for a .325 chain and it takes a 3/16" file (4.8mm)

Picture came from how to find the right round file for your Stihl chainsaw

(if you use aftermarket chains instead of oem chain, that number may not be there.)

 

[Baymule]

Always keep a couple of extra chains on hand. I even have a brand new bar and chain hanging on the wall. I hate having to shut it down and make a trip to town.

 

[greybeard]

I resharpen mine till there is very little left. I do a LOT of cutting and since 2006, 'may' have gone thru 3 chains.
I can sharpen one about as fast as I can change one.
(you do know you can (and should) flip the bar over periodically? )
Trivia:
MS = Motorsägen which is German for chainsaw.

You may sometimes hear people refer to their saws by a number instead of a model, such as "I have a 029 or "my saw is an 044".
These used to be the only designations and some people still use them but some years ago, Stihl changed their numbering process, basically moved the zero to the back and an 029 became a 290 and an 044 became a 440.

 

[Bruce]

The Stihl dealer should be able to tell you which file you need.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Well, I finally got my tractor back from the dealer. He repaired the canopy, the seat belt (the fastener was broken), the internal leak in the hydraulic lines that tilted the bucket, added a third function valve and grapple. (Sorry for the blurry picture.)

Yesterday after getting home from the dealer I mowed the 5 acre area that is to become the quail habitat. This morning after getting more diesel I got busy rounding up the brush from the line of trees next to the driveway and putting them into a pile. Here's what the pile looked like when I finished, just before lighting the fire:

Here is the brush pile 6 minutes after I started the fire:

Here is the brush pile 20 minutes after I started the fire. The fire started burning into the pasture, so I wet an old tattered blanket and used that to beat out the flames. The blanket is in the lower right.