A tree fell at the in-law’s cabin a few weeks ago. Thankfully, it missed the house (though it was close). A great neighbor came by with his chain saw last month and got a good start – he cut all the branches and cut the trunk into 8-12 foot pieces for about the top half, as in the picture below.
Fallen (pine) tree. Neighbor had cut all the branches off and made some efforts at cutting up the trunk.
I was hosting an out-of-town visitor who stayed at our house Friday night, and the family is out of town. So Saturday morning, after dropping him off at the airport, I headed up to the cabin with chainsaw, tree climbing gear (for fun afterwards), and kayak (for fun Sunday).
I started by hauling away all of the branches that the neighbor had cut. His cutting all the branches was a great time saver, and it only took me less than an hour to get them all dragged away to piles in the woods. The it was chainsaw time. The lower 30 feet or so of the truck had not been cut, and the upper trunk was cut into 8-12 foot pieces. They are quite heavy, so I needed to cut them even smaller. Don’t worry mom – I never lifted anything. All trunk logs were rolled.
Surprisingly, the chainsaw, which I had not used in probably 5 years, started right up! Even with the old gas in it (I usually put a gas preservative in, but still …) After about an hour of cutting, I started dragging and rolling. I then returned to the saw to cut some saplings that the tree had fallen on. After that was done, I thought I was finished, when I decided to cut another sapling that was growing out of the base of the tree and was now “sideways” from the tree’s root ball. At this point, the pull cord of the chain saw got caught/locked. The tools I needed to fix it are not here, and I was pretty much done anyway, so I think it is karma’s way of saying “good enough!”
Yard after Rob had removed the fallen tree.
The rest of the day consisted of visiting the lake to scout the take-out for tomorrow’s kayak trip, visiting town to buy a bucket for a possible sump project at the cabin, and dinner (burgers and italian sausage on the grill).
What's left of the tree.
One day after cutting, the exposed stumps all have a ring of pine sap on the outer two inches or so.