We visited our cabin today for the first time in three weeks. My intent was to cut down a small tree, cut it into rounds, and split the rounds. However, there was one problem, a blocked driveway.
Our plow guy comes by only when there is six inches of new accumulation; there had been only about three in Brimson. However, when the county plowed the road, they left a ridge that was over a foot high. If I rammed our four-wheel drive truck into that pile, I would probably have had to hand shovel the snow out from under the truck. So, I fired up the snowblower and cleared a drivable opening. Since I had the snowblower going, I cleared the whole driveway and many paths. I also cleared a path to my chosen tree. Two hours later I was ready to topple the tree.
While not quite ready. I had to change the chain on the saw, fuel it, and add bar oil.
OK, which way do I want the tree to fall? Well, it's leaning away from the way I really want it to go. If I cut it so it falls the way it's leaning, it might hit some seedlings we planted last spring. Can I make it topple so that it won't hit the cabin?
I think so. First make a nice notch about a third way through the tree. Oh yes, this tree is a monster, an aspen about seven inches in diameter where I'm cutting. Hm, the saw doesn't seem to be going through very fast. I thought the chain was sharp. Oh, well!
Now I cut from the opposite side about an inch above the bottom of the notch. The cutting seems to be a bit faster. At about an inch from the notch, the tree starts moving. I step back and watch it fall pretty much where I wanted it. Better yet, its in the path that I had cleared with the snowblower, making it easier to delimb and cut into rounds.
The delimbing went fairly easily, but I didn't cut all the twists off each limb. That would have taken longer but it did make it more difficult to get them out of the way.
Now I'm ready to cut it into rounds. I start at the top end and on the second cut I jam the saw. No amount of wiggling it would get it out. I tried lifting the 20+ foot tree, but I couldn't do it myself. I got my wife to help me and we had it out in a moment.
The rest went quickly as I judged quickly whether I could finish a cut from the top or the bottom. Because the tree was lying partly on a foot of snow, this was fairly easy. The cutting also seemed faster when I used the leveraging teeth on the saw housing.
We loaded our rounds up in a cart and piled them next to a larger stump I use for splitting.
Now the bad news. Our time was running out and we wanted to be on our way to Duluth. We had a bit of packing and locking up to do. However, I'm determined to split at least one round.
I take the biggest and whack! It falls in two at the first blow. Drat, the halves are not equal; I hit off center. Whack each of the halves. Same story, off center. Gosh, this would looks great. No rot, no soft spots. It should burn nicely next year.
I can't stop there; I have to do one more. Same off center whacks. But not as good quality wood. There are some whitish layers inside.
I was also taken down a notch when I looked at the stump. None of my cuts were parallel to the ground.
The bright side is we have a small start on next years wood supply and I have no injuries other than sore shoulders.
