A U shaped birch




So – last we left things we had filled 2 ½ racks of a needed 5 racks for a years worth of wood fuel.  This was done with wood that we had already felled and all we had to do was cut it to length and split it. 

Easy-Peasy.

However  - 2 ½ racks of wood is not enough to keep us warm and cozy for a heating season.  We need about double that.

So – we need to take down a tree (or a couple)

There has been a tree kind of looming over the south east side of the house that truly we should have taken down before we built.  It sort of leans towards the building in one of those ways that seem a tad threatening.  So – we identified the first victim of our search for new fuel.

(Mostly we don’t want to take trees from too close to our home.  I love the sight of these trees, and really don’t want to live in an open area here.  It just isn’t the point.)

Now this beauty was close enough that we were kind of nervous taking it down.  A giant oak crashing through the roof would not be a good thing.  Enter our trusty orange friend for yet another useful task.  Prior to making any chainsaw cuts at all, the backhoe was set up to push the tree in the right direction (aka away from the house).  


Our orange friend pushing the tree in the direction we want it to fall (aka away from the house)


Bob then set to work doing the two cuts – a horizontal one at the backside and a Vee cut out on the side where we want the tree to land.



Fingers crossed, heart racing, and backhoe pushing, the mighty oak came crashing down. 
This is a fairly heavily treed area so on its way down the oak managed to snag a birch and bend it right over to the ground.  Have you ever seen a U shaped birch tree?  Me neither.  At the point of the photos it had not yet snapped and we were thinking (hoping?) that once we got the oak off it that it would spring up no worse for wear.  Yeah right.  

A U shaped birch





Once we tried to untangle the oak there was a magnificent snap and the birch decided to join up with the oak as part of our heating supplies for the upcoming years.


Rats !


We ended up with quite a haul.  So now it is back to cutting and splitting and racking.  These babies will dry for a year or two and then do their treely duty of keeping us toasty.

Feelin' warm already


We are thinking now of getting an additional year of wood ready so that it has even more time to dry and just in case we have something better to do one fall.  The problem at the moment is that it has basically been raining since we did this, and a rainy day is no good for chainsaw work. 

Ah well - always a good excuse


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