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.

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.

First snow in the woods this winter

Yesterday saw the first snow of this winter fall in the woods!

OK, not much yet, but another inch fell today, and from the forecast it looks like there could be quite a bit more by next weekend.

Our friends Carl, Wendy, Holly and Tom came to the woods with us, though Tom got cold, so he headed home with Wendy after they'd collected some of last year's Hazel for kindling. It's a good job they did, as then the weather did this:

but that left it looking quite scenic:

I'm not sure these pheasants were too impressed though:

We actually got quite a bit of work done, despite the snow. We took the ropes this time, and Carl gave a lot of help with them, and also splitting logs. The biggest job of the day was a Hornbeam stool which had several tangled stems on it. I climbed into it to get the rope as high as possible on each stem:

Then after I'd put in the felling cuts, Carl pulled the rope to finish the job:

It was a pretty awkward stool to work, as most of the cuts were around shoulder height, which is not an ideal position to be using a chainsaw:

In between pulling trees over, there was a fire to keep going (or not)...

Holly took over as guest photographer, and got lots of interesting photos, such as Carl trying to figure out why the fire wasn't working...

and a nice snow picture:

Being Hornbeam, there was a lot of brash to clear up, and it's a tough wood to saw through and even tougher to split.

Thinner parts were striped to aid seasoning:

while the thicker bits were notched to make splitting easier:

Last of all were three intertwined stems, which had to be roped together and then felled in a group:

They were the most awkward of all, but we got them down and cleared up before the end of the day. There'll now be a lot more afternoon sunlight coming in - I'll get a photo when we're next there...

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.