Big Tree Goes Down

The really big dead tree that DH and I had wanted to take out of our north fence line (originally talked about in this post) has finally been cut down!  DH got his chainsaw running smoothly, put a freshly sharpened chain on the bar, and we set out to cut down the big sore thumb between our field and the neighboring farmer's field.

The felling took a while.  The tree is so old that it had grown around (and enveloped) the old field fencing that runs between our field and the next.  This happened sometime prior to us buying the property in early 2002, and wasn't really a problem while the tree was living.  Now dead and needing removal, though, that wire hidden inside the wood was a matter of concern.  DH definitely did not want to hit metal with his chainsaw.  That's always bad news.

So, before he could start cutting, we had to find the remains of that old farm fence (long fallen down in most places), follow it to the tree, and try to estimate at what height in the tree the wire might reside.  Then translate to heights on DH's body on both the side to which we wanted the tree to fall (where he would make the notch that would guide the tree to fall in the desired direction) and on the side where he would cut straight and level to the center of the tree. Because of being in the fence row, there was nearly a foot of difference in height--on DH--from one side to the other.

figuring the height

making the notch

tree down

That tree had been dead at the top for so long that the upper branches were brittle and pretty much exploded when it hit the ground.  While DH cut the good wood into firewood sized pieces, I used the tractor bucket to scrape the debris out of the (still frozen) hay field.  Other than moldy hay, the other thing I really hate is hay with sticks in it!  Good horse hay, and a good hay farmer, makes bales that are both mold- and stick-free!

Now that the tree is gone, it seems like there is a huge gap in the fence line.  I can see all of the neighbor's house and outbuildings across the road a half-mile away.  When the tree was standing, you could sometimes see a little red of the edge of the barn on one side of the tree, and a little bit of the house on the other.  Now I can count four entire buildings, LOL.

Oh well.  Better to have taken down that standing dead wood on our terms (in the winter when it won't damage the hay field) and use it to heat our house than to leave it rotting away until some storm blows through and knocks it over to crush either my hay or the neighbor's corn.