Such a Cutup

I said to a friend the other day that progress on the renovation was going so slow that sometimes I feel like I'm going backwards.  Such is the plight of the weekend warrior.  I've mentioned before how during the times I had at least a few hours every day to devote to the project, things moved quickly, but for a while now the daily work and responsibilities that come with home ownership have pushed the big improvement project to the sidelines.

Most recently I found myself cleaning up a large tree that blew down in one of the dramatic June thunderstorms that passed through.  The tree in question was a large Box Elder (acer negundo) that had grown awkwardly out over the yard in search of the sun.  I was lucky that it fell somewhat gradually as I had a chance to move the truck and the motorcycle that would otherwise have been crushed.  The day after I first noticed it leaning low, it crashed to the ground but remained hung up, hinged on its trunk about 10 feet off the ground.

The big problem with cutting up a leaning tree is that it's under tension and the direction of its fall can be  hard to predict.  Either side of the cut can spring up or roll at you.

I read through the Chain Saw Operator Safety Manual a couple of times just to get my head in the right place and then went to work.   Probably the rule I most wanted to break for convenience was lifting the saw to cut limbs above my shoulders.  But it seems that this is an easy way to end up cutting your own limbs off your shoulders so I resisted the urge.  I did cut a little working from a ladder but made sure I was in a stable position and wasn't reaching.  Even so it was clearly risky so I put the chainsaw down and used the hand bucksaw to finish cutting the limb from where it broke off the trunk 10 feet up.

The bulk of the work is in cleaning up the limbs, cutting up the trunk, and removing it all from the yard. Unfortunately Box Elders are not good firewood but since I had to do the work of cutting it up, I'll probably throw it in stove to take the chill out of the mornings next spring.

And speaking of firewood, there's another chore that cuts into the work of renovating...

Comments

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