Perhaps you have seen the YouTube video of the guy successfully felling a huge Douglass fir tree in the five-foot space between two buildings. Rest assured, that would never be me. If I tried that, I would somehow manage to drop the tree on both buildings. I constantly misread the lean on trees. I don’t pay attention to the directional pull of upper branches, et cetera, et cetera.
Fairly regularly, trees I knock
down tip in the exact opposite direction I am aiming for. This is why, last fall, I called a couple
better sawyers to help me drop several trees threatening my cabin.
On my last trip to the cabin, I
dropped something near a dozen dead-standing lodgepole and fir. Surprisingly, all but one tree fell exactly
where I wanted them and I didn’t wipe out any living trees I intended to save. My one failure, a sub-alpine fir, possessed a
lean I could not overcome. Fortunately, the
tree whumped down in a harmless direction of its own preference.
Today, I am sharing a photo and
video (thanks to Desiree) of me felling on of the larger trees on a slope above
the cabin.
Photo of Me Sawing the Tree
—Mitchell Hegman
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