Tuesday 2 December 2008

Tree Toppling Time

Today was the day the three poplars by the house came down. Sunday night had been quite windy causing a lot of damage a little to the north of me. I’d had a really bad nights sleep listening to the wind and wondering what direction it was and if any of the trees was likely to come down. I was really very pleased when the tree surgeons telephoned on Monday morning to say that weather permitting they would be here first thing Tuesday.

I got up early to await them and then realised that I hadn’t taken a before photograph. Outside was really foggy but it was last chance so here it is.


The three poplars can be seen and it’s also just possible to see another of the branches has started to fall in the poplar to the rear of the house, it’s hanging out to the right of the tree. The oak in the foreground and the ash tree behind and to the right of the oak were also to have the branches that overhung the telephone line trimmed.

Tree number one comes down; this one was in reach of my bedroom should it have come down in the gales.


Tree number two; this was the tallest of the three but was in danger of knocking down the new fence posts.

Timber!


And it thankfully fell about 6 inches short of the post line.


Those two trees were relatively simple, Kevin and Steve the two tree surgeons spent a bit of time getting the mouth cut just how they wanted and the two fell exactly where they were meant to. Even if they had been a bit out there was plenty of space for them to land.

Then it was tree number three. This tree at the back is the rotten one that dropped a branch a while back. It also has a distinct lean towards the house. Kevin and Steve had decided to put a wire on the tree and using my tractor put on enough tension to persuade the tree to drop ninety degrees to it’s lean.


Kevin very gingerly climbed the tree: he had to be very careful as this the branches were just breaking off in places. Eventually he found a place for the sling to attach the wire where it sounded less hollow than the surrounding bits. The lower branches were then cut off to stop the weight of them from swinging the tree round or even catching the corner of the house when the tree dropped.

Sadly I couldn’t get into a suitable safe position that wasn’t facing directly into the setting sun to photograph this one coming down but it dropped in the perfect position.


This photograph show another of the problems, once the mouth was cut out it was this rotten bit that was holding up the tree and it could have gone anywhere had they not been so thorough with the preparatory work.


One of the things to come out of the tree was this beautiful bracket fungus, I know there was a larger one on the tree but it may be beneath the trunk. I now have a rather large clean up job to do. The trunk has been cut into about 2 meter lengths that I should be able to tow with the tractor and the rest can be cut and moved by hand. I expect I’ll be cutting and burning for a month or so but I was surprised how quickly I was able to clear some of it already.



So final picture taken this evening of a rather naked looking but unthreatened house.



2 comments:

Mickle in NZ said...

Must be a relief that it is done. Your photo in the mist looks really eerie.

Huggles

Barbara Martin said...

This must be such a relief to you now the trees are down. Are you planning on using the wood from the trees in your woodstove?