Another Day - Another Tree Down

Well, Ben doesn't let any grass grown under his feet. If you aren't up and working when he walks out, the tree will already be down. Thankfully, I heard his chainsaw fire up, so hurried to put my shoes on and rush outside to watch. This time the tree was about 80 feet tall [by our estimation, the maximum height]and we decided to fell it TOWARD B1 which is the Bieniaks unit. TRUST!

So, Ben first cut a wedge out of the B-Bldg. side of the tree about two fee from the base. Then he started to cut straight towards the wedge cut. Now, normally, the tree would just eventually bend into the wedge cut and fall square with the wedge cut. But today there was an east wind blowing directly against the direction of the fall. So, felling the tree is more complicated. Behind the saw blade he hammers in small wedges that force the tree "forward." Then he cuts a little more and then hammers in some more small wedges. Eventually the tree falls. Awesome! Whap - a thunderous whap - it hits the ground.

It was about 8 feet taller than we though, with a perfect small "Christmas Tree" at the top, except flat on one side. We allowed for about 15 feet from the front of B1's porch. So, we missed the porch as it turned out by about 5 feet. Whew! The artist did it again!

We also pruned several fruit trees, badly in need of pruning. We rented a chipper that turns branches up to 6" thick into wood chips. It has been a lot of work over 2 days, but the branches and leaves are now in a huge wood chip pile and we have tons of wood stacked everywhere for anyone that needs it. A lot of it needs splitting. The maple and the fruit wood will ultimately be great for fireplaces.