The biggest chestnut

IMPORTED POST FROM OLD BLOG. ORIGINAL DATE: 02/01/2008

Well, today I felled the biggest chestnut tree so far. That's biggest in diameter, not height though. First, however, we started a fire to burn some of the brash up.

The brash:


The fire, in stages:






We kept feeding it for an hour or so, and then let it burn down by the time we left:


We won't burn all the brash though - some will be kept to provide a place for wildlife to hide in.

OK, the big tree next. Here's a picture to give you an idea of its height. You can see we waited until there was a clear area for it to fall into before felling it:


And here's a picture to give you an idea of the diameter - 15 inches - which is the upper limit that I'm currently qualified to fell:


The 18" bar was required on the chainsaw for this one, see it compared to the 13" bar I normally use below:


The felling proceeds:






and the final moment, using a felling lever to give it that final shove:


After processing it, here are the results. The neat stack of logs will be made into stools, while the large log with the yellow ring on it will go to our camp site for use as a waist-high chopping block (that's chopping with the side axe, not chopping vegetables!) The other odds and ends will make seats at our camp site.


The stool logs again:


(note, here's a post on making these logs into stools, almost a year later)

and some place mats, which I'm hoping won't crack as they dry out:


All that was left after this was the stump, nicely cleaned up as always:


and a 10ft log to end up in wood burning stoves:


I had a job moving the log at first though, as a branch on the ground-facing side of it had been stabbed into the earth! I had to cut though it before moving the log (you can see the bit stuck in the ground just to the right of the log):


Finally, here's a few views of the overall progress, with Tracy in one of them for scale:






My Dad's come down to stay for a couple of days now, to have a proper look at the wood they've just bought next to ours. I think a tree survey is the first job for him...

Mike