Powertools are generally a man thing aren’t they? Some are better than others (men and tools). The greatest tools are probably those that either grant men the ability to create or destroy more effectively. As Spiderman was once told “With power comes great responsibility”. And so it is with a chainsaw.

How I love my new chainsaw, and with the power it yields comes the responsibility of not sawing off any part of your body you wish to keep, which in my world is all of them.

There is something a bit unmanly about going to the local garage to spend £5 on a bag of logs that only last a day, particularly when as I do, you live next to a wood with piles of seasoned logs waiting to be brought home. How blessed I am to live in an area where the local estate manager is happy for people to take some of those logs home and use.

Maybe it is just my desire to provide, or just the desire not to waste money that led my to purchase my new chainsaw. Even the maths made sense. 20 bags of logs is £100, about the price of the chainsaw. After than, free fuel and lots of manly fun. Plus the fun of putting it all together and experiencing the joy of it jumping into life.

So in a cold November’s Sunday afternoon I spent most of the light hours sawing wood that I had previously felled from my back garden. To end up with a neat pile of seasoned and unseasoned logs to pop into the woodburner is a basic pleasure everyone should experience at some point. It’s a bit like coming back from a booze cruise to France and you line up all the wine. There’s a sense of being blessed with a full tank of something, so you can look forward to evenings of warm merriness. Also, there’s a sense that it’s a shame to think that one day the pile will be low again, and you get to your last bottle.

Unlike booze cruises, which in my experience aren’t something to be particularly savoured, there’s a great anticipation in thinking one day I’ll have to get out the trusty chainsaw and do it all over again. A perfect excuse to do something manly with an element of danger, and then enjoy the fruits of your endeavours with whoever it is shared with.