I had two trees near my cabin I call “cabin crossers.” They are something akin to “Earth crossers” (asteroids with orbits that cross the orbit track of Earth). In the long run, one or more Earth crossers could collide with Earth. Cabin crossers might topple against my cabin.
The cabin crossers at my cabin were
both sickly and dying Douglas firs with dead tops. Each of them reached something near 80 or 90
feet above the understory. One tree leaned
heavily in the direction of the cabin.
I and a group of my favorite
people spent early Sunday morning at my cabin felling the two trees and
cleaning up the aftermath.
My friend Geddy Parker, a man
with considerable logging experience, acted as the lead engineer and sawyer. For the cabin leaner, Geddy attached a rope
as high up the tree as he could reach with my extension ladder. While he made his cuts and pounded wedges, two
of us pulled on the rope to direct the tree away from the cabin.
Both trees dropped away from
the cabin in a shower of shedding limbs.
After the trees fell, all of us
worked together to chop up the trees, pile the limbs and stack the cut lengths
for easy access later.
Geddy counted tree rings and
found both trees something near 220-years-old.
Though we all worked hard,
everyone enjoyed a day in the woods.
After we finished our work, I prepared hot dogs and hamburgers on a
campfire. We chatted, laughed, and simply enjoyed being around good
people all day.
Thanks, everyone!
Assessing the Leaner
The Crew at Work
Examining Tree Rings
End Result
Video of the Second Tree
Dropping
—Mitchell Hegman
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