Thursday Thirteen: removing the trees

Unfortunately, we have some trees in our yard that are dying. The trees have been there for over 50 years and they are at the end of their lifespan. We need to do a lot of planting to make up for the losses we expect over the next few years. In most cases I feel confident enough with my chainsawing skills that I will remove them myself, but we had two that were pretty close to the house and I was not confident that I could get them to fall the "right" way and so my neighbour and "tree feller" extraordinaire came over to help me. I'll be honest. He has way better equipment and he is a LOT faster than I am, but as it turns out he did exactly what I would have done and the trees were not tall enough to reach the house anyway. It was nice to watch him work though!

Here are 13 pictures of the process unfolding:

1. Before photo. There is one on the left and one on the right. I was most concerned with the one on the right.

2. A closer look at the tree on the right.

3. Getting the equipment ready.

4. A closer look at the tree. Decision time.

5. Cutting!

6. On to the next one.

7. Cutting the wedge.

8. Cut number two - almost got the chainsaw stuck on this cut...

9. Bucking it up. ( I just love to say that!)

10. You can't really tell from this picture but the base of the second tree that was cut was soaking wet. I have never seen so much water come from a tree. We were very lucky the middle of this one was not completely rotten.

11. Twig pile.
12. Wood pile. I was surprised at how little there was from cutting down two trees.

13. After picture. Thankfully there is not an immense gap from losing these two trees. We still have a lot to plant in our yard, but I was grateful there was not a significantly larger difference made with the loss of these two trees.