For a while I worked outside in winter time, cutting brush in January. It was a work program set up by the government. It was really cold that January. There were days when the temperature dipped to 30 degrees below zero. To start out the day we would have a fire built, and warm up the chainsaws, by the fire, until they thawed out enough that they would start and run. By that time we too were warm enough, to go do some brush cutting beside a forest road. We would cut brush for maybe 15 minutes, and then the saws would start to freeze up and stall. So we would thaw out the saws beside the fire again, for a few minutes until they would run again. This went on the rest of the day until the sun went down early, and the light started to dim. Day time is quite short in January. It starts to get dusk by 4 p.m. My hands were not strong enough, to both wear gloves and hold the bar of the chainsaw. So I would not wear a glove on one hand. Because it was so cold and my hands became so cold, it may have affected the joints. The brush clearing project continued until early spring. At that time we started cutting bush and small trees, clearing out the ditches on both sides of winding Forest Service roads. This project gave me a little more small tree felling experience. This was necessary for the next project, which would follow. The next winter I was thinning trees, using a chainsaw, in a heavily forested area, about 20 minutes north of town. The trees were growing so close together, they could not get enough light to grow properly. So we cut brush and small trees away, from the more valuable large trees. If there were only small trees in an area, we would save the most valuable species of tree, and cut down the less valuable ones, to bring in more light. That winter the snow was so deep that we had to wear snowshoes to be able to walk around in the forest to cut the trees. I still could not wear a glove on the hand that held the chainsaw bar. So on that hand the joints kept getting cold. I worked on that project until it ended in early summer. The result of all that working outside in the cold is that at certain times, when the weather changes, the joints on the one hand swell up a little and become sore. Sometimes it involves the whole arm. The arm and hand feel almost brittle, like they are made of glass. There is some pain in the joints of the hand and arm. To deal with the discomfort, I take over the counter pain medication. It is not a constant condition. It comes and goes. Sometimes there are long stretches where the arthritis disappears all together. But every now and then it comes back, bringing with it swelling and pain. The medication makes life with it tolerable. |
