Yesterday was glorious and the wood anemonies have enjoyed the better weather. Sunny and mild and the woodland was alive with birdsong. A pair of nuthatches are taking up residence in the dead birch tree that the woodpeckers nested in last year. I was hoping they would nest there again but I’m happy with the new folks. My main remit mainly involved chainsaw work. I wanted to remove some small stumps to allow my car to go further down the track where I shall try the car camping again later. It’ll also make it easier for loading logs and tools. The big job was to try to tackle one or more of the “big three”. These are three sycamore in the hazel coppice which I had identified as “victims” of my chainsaw. Sycamore are very shade-heavy and the hazel needs as much light as it can get to thrive. I always feel a little sad and guilty taking down big trees but it’s for the greater good and in fact the stumps will sprout again and form coppice-like trees which can be cut again and again for firewood in future. These three are the biggest I have tackled so far. Not the tallest but the widest and therefor scariest. I had been offered some help but that plan fell through and it’s been nagging me that they need to come down now before the regowth starts. If left till next next winter, the new hazel growth will be in danger of damage when they are felled. So it was with some trepidation I decided to bite the bullet and have a go at one or two. Tree felling of this nature, on your own is really not recommended but neither is trying to land on the moon!
This photo doesn’t convey the actual size and weight of the first tree. In fact it looks quite puny but the base was about fifteen inches in diameter – slightly wider than the length of my chainsaw blade. The curvey nature of the trunk made it hard to guage where the main weight would be – which is where the tree would “want” to fall when cut. You need to work with this natural balance but at the same time try to cut it so that it falls where you want it to. i.e. in a gap or where it will do least damage to neighbouring trees. I took my time and it landed perfectly where I planned it.
Feeling my confidence growing I set about the second one. Slightly bigger and straighter but in a trickier position to get it to fall into the gap I wanted. If it fell a little too much to the left it could get hung up in another big tree and that would have been a nightmare to release being such a heavy tree. Slightly to the right and it would wreck my cleaving brake and hit another biggie. No big deal but I preferred not to. It’s the big one centre of the photo and I wanted it to fall to the right. The bend at the base suggested it might. So that’s where I aimed it. It went with a creak and a huge thump, right where I wanted it. I was shaking with adrenalin but hugely relieved.
I decided two out of three was enough for one day and started the big task of cutting it up and dealing with all the brash. I got the brash cleared which took most of the day but there’s still a lot of cutting and chopping to do. I felt very pleased with what I achieved on my own and the experience has boosted my confidence, that I might tackle the third one later this week.
It was a real joy to be in the woods on such a lovely day even though I was very busy, I still got enough time to take in the beauty of it as it comes back to life for another year.
