Whilst I was in India, Scamander experienced some very windy weather. As you know from my other blogs the bushfire of 2006 wrecked havic on the bush. Many trees subsequently died due to the hot conditions they had to go through. That plus the fact that it was very wet these pass few month meant that many came over when these winds came through. Lisa and some of our friends did the necessary work to clear our fences of fallen trees and to get the electric fences working again.

However many big trees remained to be cut up when I came home. Now for those who don’t know much about eucalypts (gum trees) they are the predominant giants of our bush. The one I have been dealing with mostly generally occurs in the gullies and we call it ‘white gum’. These trees can be extremely tall and wide at the trunk. They are not particularly good for building or for fence posts as they don’t stand up to weather as well as say iron-barks or brown top. Furthermore no one wants them even for fire wood as they are difficult to split. No doubt I could be upsetting tree lovers when I appear to be denigrating these majestic trees. And I wish it was otherwise too but lets  face it they are not a good commercial tree.

So as there were so many and in the pass I haven’t been even able to split them for firewood that I decided to buy a wood splitter.

30tonne ram , vertical or horizontal Wood Splitter

Not the top of the line job but so far it works very well although the man handling of the blocks can be wearying.

Yes Tasmania is in a bad way managing its large amount of forests. This applies equally well to private land holders as well as to the State Forests which are so much a part of our East Coast environment. Many times I have had piles of trees stacked with no one wanting them. And it makes no sense pushing them into a heap and burning them which is what mostly happens. I suppose now that electricity prices are soaring people in rural areas will revert back to wood fired heating.

This is a topic that I would like to hear your comments.