Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Saint Maxime
A comedy of errors today. After putting the third (and last) coat of varnish on the shutters I went to help a friend the other side of the village to fell a dead oak tree. The deal is a bit of labour for a bit of wood. Very nice, especially oak. Great Christmas fire for 2005.
Anyway the tree had been pollarded several years ago but the ivy had got hold and killed the tree. It was about 80 cm (2 1/2 feet) across and 10m (30 foot) tall. No branches, just the trunk. Piece of cake :-). The tree was on the bank of a small gully/culvert. The inital felling was relatively easy, even considering the tree was growing out of a thick laurel hedge and restricted movement, and more importantly the escape route once it started to fall. Once felled it lay in the field with approx one quarter hanging over the gully at right angles. One slight problem was our chainsaws where not long enough to cut all the way though the trunk, so it was a matter of cutting from both sides and rolling the trunk with a small tractor to cut the other side.
The top half logged we proceded to try to pull the tree into the field to finished the job. However, slight misjudment and one end slipped into the gully. Stuck. Tried pulling the trunk out but snapped the rope and it was way too heavy for the mini tractor. So we set to work chopping the top off that stuck out above the gully. Major hassle because the chainsaws where too small and we could get all the way around. After alot of phafing about we got the top third off and tried again with the tractor. Opps, too much beer and bad planning, SPLOSH. The 10 foot length of tree was now lying in the gully.
OK, no problem, more rope, some levers, more pulling and we can shift it. One thing I hadn't noticed was the water upstream was rising. The tree made a superb dam. I jumped in to lever the trunk out but my boots where not quite long enough any more. Yuch. Eventually we hauled the trunk vertical and after much head scratching chopped a little more tree of to lighten the load. Finally we managed to pull the tree clear and log it into sensibly sized pieces. What a job, half-a-day turned into a day and I'm whacked out.
All this just to save a couple of euros on electric heating. I expect my chainsaw is going to need a service and sharpen after the abuse of today.
