Yesterday I took our chain saw and our power washer to the small engine place. The guy there told me he could fix the power washer, but the chain saw, a Homelite, was out of production because the company who made it was bought and sold several times, and he couldn’t get parts. (Sidebar: this is why I don’t recommend relying entirely on cloud computing services, because they can be bought, sold, and closed).

I went by Home Depot to find a replacement and discovered that battery-operated chain saws are available and affordable, so I bought one. It is a Ryobi, and uses a 40-volt lithium battery.

I got it home, charged it up, and tried it out. It worked much better than I expected. Zzzzzzt! I was though a giant tree branch. Zzzzzzt! I had removed an entire dead Rose-of-Sharon. Zzzzzt! Abby’s photinia was under control.

I also finished the mowing I started yesterday, and gassed up my car, Abby’s truck, and the RV. We are facing a severe weather threat tonight, and I wanted to have the yard work wrapped up so I can follow the weather and protect my family, then spring into action to photograph whatever might be newsworthy without worrying about daily stuff.