Lots of tree felling videos! (CS32 chainsaw course)

Well, I've been busy editing videos from the CS32 chainsaw course I was on this week, so put them full-screen, turn up the sound and sit back...

First, felling an oak tree that then gets hung up, and how it is taken down by severing some of the hinge:

Here's the slow-motion reply of the bit where several trees knock each other over - this is why everyone's meant to be two tree lengths away...

Using the Tirfor winch to assist in felling of an oak:

Felling a forward leaning oak, using retaining wood to hold it until the last moment:

Using a winch to roll a hung up tree so it falls safely:

All the training was delivered by David Rossney of Esus Forestry Training.

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

CS32 Medium Tree Felling chainsaw course - felling oaks

I've had some time off work this week to do the CS32 Felling Medium Trees (380-760mm) chainsaw course. Our instructor is David Rossney of Esus Forestry Training - Tracy and I did the coppice harvesting efficiency course with him a few years ago too. Basically, after this course, and exam, I'll be qualified to fell trees up to 30" diameter.

There's some felling videos to come in a moment, but first a few pictures. We've been learning about properly removing the buttresses of the trees:

How to make an accurate gob cut when the tree is wider than the chainsaw bar:

and also about high-lift felling wedges:

and how to use them:

OK, here's a quick video showing just the highlights (i.e. trees falling) from day 1:

If you'd like to see the whole process, and what happens on the CS32 course, here's me felling a tree:

More videos in a new post here...

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Felling three large Sycamore - video

This really is the last job this winter... These trees were bigger than I've trained to fell, and as they were also near our neighbour's barn we paid our friend Tim to come and fell them.

We had a bit of a mix up on who was bringing what kit, so a bit of improvisation was required, but Tim's great at that kind of thing. We used our Tirfor 516 winch on one of the trees, in conjunction with wedges and a sledgehammer. The others came down more easily, just with chainsaw and the wedges.

Here's the video of it all. You'll see I had to make a fairly sharp exit after operating the winch, although once the tree was down I saw I could have remained where I was, but it's not the kind of risk you take!

Here's a few still pictures to go with it:

As you can see, they were pretty big trees, and we need to go back later to finish clearing them up. They had rotten parts at their centres, so it was definitely good to get them down, given the proximity to the barn. We'll probably get several cubic metres of logs out of them, so they'll be put to good use.

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Felling leaning Sycamore with a Tirfor winch and chainsaw

Yesterday we did one of our last couple of jobs in the wood this winter. A year ago we'd had to leave some heavily leaning trees, but now we have a decent Tirfor winch, we decided to finish them off. Here's the trees:

We used the winch and a steel rope to do the pulling, but also had another rope attached to help control the tree as it fell. Here's a video of the first one coming down, including our neighbour Francis helping out with his pole saw:

The other ones didn't come down quite so neatly, heading off sideways, but thanks to the rope that was attached in addition to the winch cable there was no damage done. This is one of the problems with Sycamore - the hinge is extremely weak and separates when the tree moves just a small amount. Here's the view afterwards:

There's one more job to be done during January - the two large Sycamore on the edge, further down the hill. Our friend Tim will be felling them for us, and we'll do the rest of the work once they're down.

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Coppicing (nearly) finished!

Over the past few days we've cracked on with the coppicing, with some help from friends to speed us along, and as a result we've now finished coppicing all the trees we plan to in the central area where we're working. There's still a few edge trees to deal with, but the bulk of the work is now done, and if we had to stop now, it would be OK.

The week started quite foggy, and was pretty cold too.

In fact, it was could enough that for a couple of days we decided to only work for 3-4 hours at a time in the wood, as it was sub-zero and windy too! On one of these days we collected some year-old logs from our wood, and also picked on some 8ft stakes I've been making. We'll use these to build a firewood shelter at home, similar to the one in the wood.

Today we went up to tackle these last few trees in the middle area:

As we had Carl and Holly there to help, things sped along nicely.

Before long we were at the last tree in the middle area, and I left Carl to do the necessary:

As I said, there's still some edge trees to deal with. In the afternoon we went to clear this area out:

This was hard work, as I was back in the ditch, just like a year ago...

but before long it was looking clearer:

There's several edge trees to come down here. The nearest tree is a Cherry, which will stay, while the Hazel and Sycamore further up the hill will come down. The two big Sycamore at the top are larger than I've trained to fell, and as they're near our neighbour's barn, I'm going to arrange for someone we know to fell them, and we'll deal with them once they're on the ground.

I'd like to thin some of the Holly on the other side as well, time permitting:

Here's a few views of the area we've been working in:

It's going to be exciting to see it all coming back to life in just a few months...

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Tree felling with a UNIMOG and cherry picker

Look what came to visit the woods yesterday!

Here's the reason - a Sycamore, coppiced at some time in the past but left to grow for 40-50 years, and now very close to the power lines:

So, the local power company sent two tree surgeons with the UNIMOG to bring it down. The vehicle had a cherry picker on the back with a very high reach:

This allowed one guy to be close to the branches being removed, using a top-handle chainsaw - you're not allowed to use these on the ground, and you normally have to show your qualification to use one before a shop will sell one to you.

The other guy was down at ground level, taking the branches and logs as they came down, and bringing them over to me, so I could put them where I wanted. The tree came down in sections, removing the smaller stems first:

Then the top came off the large stem, using a rope to make sure it fell the right way (see the video at the end for this), leaving just the main stem to come down:

This was taken down in large chunks. The operator used the chainsaw to cut through from the back, but because the logs were so large, when each section sat back, there was still enough room to pull the saw out and finish the cut from the front.

Then the log could just be pushed off:

Before long, there wasn't much left:

When they were done there was just a pile of logs left at the base. The amazing thing was that every single log and branch landed in this small area:

Here's the pile of brash, which was left for me to burn up later (this was part of the deal, so we didn't have to contribute too much for the extra work of bringing the whole tree down rather than trimming it):

I also ended up with a pile of smaller logs:

and I arranged the larger logs onto bearers, to keep them dry until I cut them up later:

There was one bit that was too heavy to move, so that'll have to wait until I come back with our big chainsaw to cut it up:

Here's the stumps as they left them:

When I come back with the big chainsaw, I'll cut them off nearer to the ground. We have a plan for the logs to go to a friend who lives nearby, in return for some help in the wood.

And finally, the bit you've been waiting for: the video!

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Timelapse videos of this winter's coppicing

Every day we went to work in the woods this winter we took photos from several different fixed points. I've put them together into short videos now, so you can see the progress we made as we worked. The first two videos are longer, but most of the changes are near the start, so feel free to skip the latter half of them, unless you want to see the snow at the end of each one. From the top of the hill at the left:

From the top of the hill at the right:

20m in from the top:

40m in from the top:

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.

A change in the weather

This week the wet and windy weather finally stopped, giving way to sunshine and the risk of frost - much better for working in the wood!
This also meant mist some mornings, but that clears away soon enough.
The birds seem to prefer the sunny days - we see the Robin a lot more, and the local Blackbird is getting braver, visiting us where we have lunch.
I spent the early part of the week working in a ditch
Actually, a muddy ditch, and I put a layer of branches in the bottom to stop me sinking:
Anyway, it's all cleared out now, apart from a few small trees which we'll have to get our neighbour to fell from his side of the fence.

I finally got to use my new double pulley this week:
With this, and the two single pulleys, we can now set up a rope that goes round a corner and then onto a 4:1 pulley system, making it very easy to pull over the leaning trees at the edge of the wood. These are the first two we used it on:
The ones remaining at the right are more problematic, as three stems have twisted together - we're going to take some advice from more experienced foresters to find out what to do to get them down safely. You can see the twisted stems in the photo below, along with the logs from one of the two trees we felled:
Meanwhile, Tracy was busy working on one of the larger chestnut stools:
Yes - I did manage to photograph the tree half way to the ground!

It's hard to believe that these trees have grown to this size in just 16 years, but they have - we counted the rings.
We do feel like we're making some progress now, with a space opening up down the hill where Tracy's working, and quite a difference in some of the dense areas alongside the neighbouring barn:
Let's hope the weather holds for the coming week, when we'll be up in the wood for three of the five days...

Mike

Click here to read the rest of this post.