The Husqvarna 346XP...and My Sore Back

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Here is a picture of my new saw. It may be recognizable for some...for others you may want to remove your hat in reverence to the one of the most righteous of all chainsaws...the Husqvarna 346XP. I snapped this picture in front of my fireplace the day I brought the saw home. You can still see the dealer tag on the handle. The tag reads "Bad Dude!"

I love chainsaws...and there is so much that I want to write about them that the writing is difficult for me. I don't know where to begin. I figure this new saw, the 346XP, would be a good place to start. Let me tell you something...this saw absolutely screams. I still struggle in fully understanding how fast this saw runs. It is a professional grade saw and I had the dealer set me up with a 16 inch Oregon Micro Lite bar and a .325 Oregon VP chain. I honestly don't know what I am going to do with my 455 Rancher now that I am running this. This saw puts my Rancher to shame. After running two tanks of gas thru this saw I decided to run my Rancher some and I thought I was cutting with a dull chain. I wasn't...the Rancher was just that much slower than the 346XP. If I can offer you some advice...if you are in the market for a new saw and are considering a 455 or 460 Rancher...or the Stihl 290 Farmboss...spend an extra $60 dollars and buy the 346XP. You will thank me when you do. Good gravy is this thing wicked!!

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I cut up a heaping truckload of wood today. A huge silver maple had fallen a couple weeks back and landed on a two-lane state road out here in farmland. ODOT had pushed it into the ditch and there it lay. It turned out that I knew the owner of the tree and he told me I could have it. I used the 346XP for the limbing and tops and I used the 455 Rancher for the big wood. I had to deal with the ditch on the side of the road and that made lugging the wood into my truck a challenge. I had my truck heaped with wood...probably the largest single load I hauled this year. Boy, let me tell you...I am feeling it now. I am really sore and drained from today and I have been laying on an ice pack during the Buckeye's game. Tomorrow I plan to cut again and it may be my last load of the year. I have a surprisingly big apple tree to cut up and some huge ash trunks that will need split before I can lug them into the truck. They are 24 inches round. Ash, as they say, is the firewood for kings. Right now I don't feel like a king...I feel like a beat down king.

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I still haven't fired up the Hardy. The weather this weekend is in the 60's (f) and we are going to stay warm until Wednesday. I am waiting until Wednesday when I can light it around 3 pm and have it up to temp by nightfall. Night comes real early here since the time change. It is totally dark at 6 pm. Tomorrow I will take some pictures of the woodshed. I am real proud of my work this year.

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Smokin