In our strawberry paddock we had 2 big trees right next to the strawberries. They were both dead but needing removing. And this is what I decided to do to my chagrin.

As you might know felling big trees can be very dangerous. The bigger of the 2 was in this category being about a metre in width at its base and with many big limbs at a great height.

So I cut the wedge in one side and as the limbs were mainly opposite I wedged the back cut so as to turn it up the hill. My mistake I believe is my front wedge cut was too deep with a result that the tree had nothing left to stop it falling in the wrong direction. 

Here I am trying to impress by Helpx  volunteers by my tree felling skills to no avail. Listen to the video and you will hear me yelling out ” get out of the way” and stronger words to that effect.

The tree was dangerous and when it fell it went straight across my raspberries, my blackcurrant row and then through the fence. All of us then spent the next few days cleaning up the mess, removing the limb wood, splitting wood for winter firewood and repairing the fence. The boys were great and we all got stuck into it . My Echo chainsaw purchased from the States worked well but I would say now that it is due for a new chain.

he doesn’t look at all worried, although I think he was astonished when it was falling. (see video)

Once the tree was down it took a lot of time to cut up and split the limbwood.

We have a hydraulic splitter which is almost essential for splitting white gums.

A good outcome is that much of our firewood was cut up in these next few days