Felling the ash and the large oak

I felled the 40-foot ash quite easily, taking off the larger, lower branches first, then cutting and hauling the main tree down in the direction I wanted it. It came within about 10 feet of the gate into the yard.

It was easy enough then to strip it down, sawing it quickly into manageable pieces for fire wood. Ash is the best firewood grown on any scale in the UK, both in terms of the heat it produces and also in terms of drying out quickly. Oak is good too but takes twice as long to dry out.

Felling the oak was another matter. I needed help. A farmer with a tractor joined me. Again, we stripped the lateral branches and then went for the main trunk.

We had to cut it low to keep the centre of gravity close to the ground for safety. And we used the tractor to pull it over as we cut through the trunk.

And it worked, coming down exactly where we wanted it. But it did take a lot more cutting up.
The logs were split within about three weeks – surprisingly easily with my maul (a wide-headed axe for splitting logs).

But we also left 18 complete rounds from the main trunk of the tree, each between 9 and 14 inches high. These will be used as steps going in to the wood from the yard. A nice touch, I hope.

The smaller, 40-foot oak is still standing. I could chop it down now but I have nowhere to store the wood. So it will stand - I hope (!) - for one more year.

Felling three large trees

Three large trees are too close to the homestead for comfort. And, sadly, they have to go.

A 45-foot-tall oak – a beautifully shaped tree – stands about 20 feet from the house. You see it coming up the drive as soon as you enter the yard.

But some of its longer branches now overhang the house. While it takes a lot to bring down oak branches – they are incredibly robust trees – it still leaves us feeling uncomfortable.

We’ve already had one narrow escape from  tree in the yard. When we moved in, the first tree you saw when coming up the drive was a 40-foot ash tree which split into three trunks about three feet from the ground.

Of course, as the trunks grew up they leaned outwards, away from the centre of the tree. And all the branches from he trunks grew outwards too, away from the tree towards the light. There was little light available to feed branches growing inwards, toward the other two trunks.

This put all the weight on the outside of the tree and which started to pull the three trunks further and further out from the centre.

Waking up after one stormy night we realised the kitchen was quite dark. The top 20 feet had been blown off the trunk nearest to the house.

But we were incredibly lucky. It had landed in the 90^o angle formed by the kitchen and the entrance hall jutting out next to it, missing the walls and roof by inches. The only damage was the breaking of one end bracket on the uPVC guttering. We breathed a sigh of relief. As did our insurance company.

The other two trunks were promptly taken down, exposed as they  were to winds they had previously been sheltered from. 

And now, rather than ride our luck again, I not only ave to fell the 45-foot oak but also a 40-foot ash and an oak of similar size which are growing in a raised bed next to the yard. 

They would crush the cars if they fell on them and their roots are not wide-spread enough to support trees of that height. In addition to that, they back on to other larger trees and so, once again, are growing out towards the light – and the yard and cars.

I'll say my goodbyes to the ash first. The oaks are on borrowed time