Frontier Women

I have the usual talk with my coworkers about what we all did over the weekend. Most people say things like going to a winery or seeing a baseball game or going out to eat. My response is that I cut down trees. 

My crowning achievement, a monster tree that I cut down.

I do enjoy the shock on people’s faces when I tell them I was cutting down trees with a chainsaw. It’s not what anyone in my city office setting expects to hear.  

I mainly explain how satisfying it is. You see a huge tree, and you strategize how you’re going to take it down. Smaller ones you can dive right in, but the bigger ones, like the one above, required vine and limb removal first. Vines are the biggest issue. The first YouTube video we watched nicknamed them, “The Widowmakers.” They influence the fall of a tree immensely and can change the entire direction of the fall. Or, cause them not to fall at all, which has happened a few times. It becomes scary then, because you are no longer in control of the tree. It could fall at any moment, in any direction. And vines are just obnoxious to remove, they grow really high, jump from tree to tree, and tangle up in each other. They truly have a will to survive.

Our second biggest annoyance is getting the chain stuck in the tree. It happned twice the last time we were cutting. The first time was because I was being lazy and didn’t make the preliminary notches to create tree hinges (so to speak), and the tree clamped shut right on my blade. We ended up taking the blade off the chainsaw, and then using the highly technical skill of bouncing and putting weight on the already sideways tree to make it release it’s captor. For this tree, it worked.

For the second situation… well, it was a bit tricker. It was a large, tall tree, but it was free of vines. It seemed like it would be a quick one to cut down. But, we misjudged the lean of the tree, and instead of going the direction that the notch was created, it went the exact opposite, towards human life, and clamping shut on the blade and chain.  

Luckily, the human life, D’Arcy, was uninjured, as the tree decided it wasn’t ready to come all the way down yet. It was mostly up, leaning against some other trees. But, that ended our time messing with it, because we don’t mess with trees we can’t control. So, we once again took apart the chainsaw, and left it, chainsaw blade still embedded in its trunk. 

I went to check on it a day later, and at some point, it had fallen the rest of the way down. But, the chainsaw blade was still tightly wedged in there. 

And as of this post, it is still there, because my motivation for doing farm work during the work week is minimal. I’ll retrieve it this weekend using the backup chainsaw… a chainsaw I do not enjoy using, but I will do it anyway for I must save the pieces of my heart chainsaw*. Also, that was a brand new sharp chain, and I would really like to keep using it. Luckily for the chain there is no rain predicted until Sunday, but unlucky for any other part of my farm because it hasn’t rained in forever and my grass is all brown now. 

*The chainsaw that makes my heart sing RUMMMMMM BRRRUMMMMMMM BRYUMMMMMM.

The finish line of getting this paddock ready is in sight! Yaaaaay!!