One of our mature Chestnut trees has died. It needed cutting down in a controlled manner rather than falling haphazardly. The latter would be a consequence of a storm or by me wielding the saw.

I called in a pro.

Three efficient cuts and it was safely on the ground.

I set to cutting it up.

It was like filleting a dinosaur.

My brother came over on Sunday morning to give me a hand.

He came back this morning. We had to dice the bigger rings as they were too heavy to lift into the trailer. All told we filled the trailer six times. The debris left when the tree shattered on the ground kept the bonfire going for two days. We raked up the remainder of the twigs and saw cuttings as the first rain drops fell.

How guys do this for a living I don’t know. It’s the hardest graft I’ve done in years. You need a little more than a tartan shirt, a beard and some Stihl braces to make it as a lumberjack.

You need a little more than a tartan shirt, a beard and some Stihl braces to make it as a lumberjack.

Women’s underwear?

Womens clothing and suspenders also required.

There’s a giant creepy-crawly thing attacking the Moont Rover in pic 4.

You’ve forgotten the high heels.
The PPE for the job

Beardy McAxerson to the forum!

That’s a relief.

I’ve been worrying about you running out of firewood 😀

That puts my weedy Rowan trimming this weekend to shame.

How much land do you have!?! Does TJ-land-ownership-theft explode into flames if he comes within 100M of you.

Now that looks like a satisfying job.

And a decent workout.

100m – he wont get that close unless hes set off the perimeter claymores and spikey nail sticks!

Been watching this unfold on facebook pete- its been entertaining.

One of our mature Chestnut trees has died. It needed cutting down…

Aye, course it did 😉

My equally manly effort… 😉

My brother has been a tree surgeon for 20 years. He’s one of the strongest and fittest blokes I know and he doesn’t have a beard or a tartan shirt.
Mind you, the creeping arthritis and other problems from working outdoors for 20 years doing that sort of manly stuff are no fun.
I am really proud of my kid brother, especially when he is as good as he is at what he does (if anyone on Tyneside needs a tree surgeon, let me know).

Big thumbs up here – that’ll keep the stoves going for a few nights 🙂

Filleting a dinosaur. 😆

Looks like perfect timing, that looks well air dried. Horse chestnut splits easy, but does start to break down quicker than other hardwoods, so would aim to burn it next winter, although some of the upper limbs may be fine for this year.

Just about to head into our main felling season now, get some very bemused looks from the public when there is 2 foot of snow and we are in vests knocking over trees, dragging out the winch cable, hot work. Love it, can eat loads of cake and not get fat.

The felling is the easy part its the tidying up thats the hard work.

@matt_oaa, great job on the rowan. When are you going to get round to the final cut? 😉

If they don’t regrow next year. Fancy lopping the birch down next….

My brother is also a tree surgeon and sells wood, has climbed all over the world on some of the hardest routes, canoeing ace, ripped, can cane it hard, chick magnet(one recent post on FB was the ‘tub of love’ some festival with a giant tub full of maybe 30 naked ladies and him jumping in!). Bastard.

One of my mates is a tree surgeon – he had a carabiner fail once leading to him falling 60ft out of a tree with a chainsaw in his hand . Minor cuts and bruises lucky bloke.

Something satisfying about putting something like that down. Even better when its stacked and you know that you have the next 2 winters sorted.

Looks like perfect timing, that looks well air dried. Horse chestnut splits easy, but does start to break down quicker than other hardwoods, so would aim to burn it next winter, although some of the upper limbs may be fine for this year.

It’s an odd mix, some parts of the tree were full of life, there was a bit or rot though around the base. The uppermost limbs were bone dry. The big rings from the main trunk resisted splitting by hand with the maul. I’m keen to see how they split with the hydraulic splitter.

The tree stood above a cabin I built a while back. It had to come down for fear it would be blown on top of it.

Let the wet stuff dry, it’s like splitting polystyrene, but without all the little bits once dry.

Nice work fella…..or should that be feller? 🙂

And I can attest to it being hard work having felled 7 trees this weekend. None that big but a couple over 40 feet tall.

Proper satisfying manly work.

And tidying up the brash aftermath takes a fair old while too!

Hipster lumberjack you say. Took an age due to an incredibly blunt axe.

So what happened to all the wood?

I split it and stacked the logs that needed seasoning in a couple of Holz Hausens. It was something of a challenge as the wood didn’t split with straight grain, it twisted this way and that so the stacks have a different feel. I want to properly cap the tops with some straighter grained Cedar logs which should be forthcoming soon.

I had a freak accident where a hefty log, about a third the size and weight of a forty five gallon drum, fell from the pile crushing my finger, splitting it badly. I survived the mother of all whities to get to A&E where I had another fainting fit. They checked for nerve damage, x-rayed it, then cleaned and stitched it together. A glove wouldn’t have saved it.

There was still a load of dead wood which should be burnable almost immediately which my brother split this morning. He has limited storage space so this should work well for him.

Health and safely isn’t a strong family suit.

Excellent stuff.

I particularly like the last two pics as they make it look like you live in a mini Swiss village where the local sport is log pile dancing.

You need to re-hire the tipper driver who dropped off the first pile – much neater 😉

Missed this thread first time round – the chopping down/chopping up of the tree would have made for some great time-lapse video.
RM.

I now know where there is a pile of logs….is that next to the palace?

I now know where there is a pile of logs….is that next to the palace?

Aye. My brother runs the gallery next door.