{"id":12688,"date":"2022-09-03T12:53:42","date_gmt":"2022-09-03T19:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/?p=12688"},"modified":"2022-09-03T12:53:42","modified_gmt":"2022-09-03T19:53:42","slug":"the-heat-is-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/?p=12688","title":{"rendered":"The heat is gone"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n250 miles SSW (south south west) of the Naneum Fan (red star), a lightning strike hit an area with very high surface fuel load: Short needle conifer with brush and downed material in mature and old growth stands. This is the Cedar Creek Fire and regional winds have carried smoke into Eastern Washington.
\nThis has kept a forecast temperature of 100\u00b0 to 10 degrees less.
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\nSeattle and Puget Sound at the upper left; The Columbia River is the bright white line going across the map, WA north, OR south of that. There are no days forecast in the next 7 for a temperature over 85\u00b0.<\/p>\n

Four items of interest this week.
\n– On Tuesday, my old chainsaw ran for 10 minutes and quit.
\n – On Wednesday, Brittany Annie \u2013 13 yrs, 5 months \u2013 went to a grave under a Ponderosa Pine tree. This is along the trail where Nancy’s ashes are strewn.
\n – Third thing: Ellensburg began to welcome County Fair and Rodeo folks.
\n– #4: Thursday would have been Nancy’s 79th birthday.<\/p>\n

The Fair and Rodeo folks will be mostly gone by Tuesday, the 6th. Local schools start then, but CWU classes do not start until Sept. 21st.<\/p>\n

About the chainsaw: We bought a Stihl MS 290 in Yakima about 20 years ago. “MS” Stands for Motors\u00e4ge<\/i>, which is German for chainsaw! It replaced an old Homelite. Over the past three years the saw became increasingly difficult to start and would run for 30 minutes or so, then stop and not restart. So this week I took it to an EBRG dealer where it was taken apart and diagnosed as terminal. No surprise.
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\n$400 and some more, I have a new MS 250. The numbers, 290 and 250, are roughly indicative of power, so the new one is slightly less powerful then the older one. It is also lighter by about 1.5 pounds, and has a shorter bar or chain length.
\nHowever it is very similar, but does start, stop, and start again as they are supposed to do.
\nThe saw manual has 10 pages of warnings, although I haven’t seen one that says the State of California claims touching it will cause cancer. Some are good tips, but I thought some were odd or unlikely.
\n\"\"In the drawing, note the ladder is resting on the round trunk of the tree (wiggle prone), the saw is crossing in front of the worker, and it is above the shoulder.
\nDo you think no one would do such a thing? Think again. And would a person cut the entire top off, not just a branch?
\nI knew there are videos on the web of bad practices and related failures, so went searching.
\nWatch the linked-to video:
\n8 minutes of idiots with a chainsaw {a few are deliberate}, for instance a couple of things are worthless before the tree drops on them. <\/p>\n