Last winter we had a large beech tree cut down. It could easily have been close to 100 years old, but there wasn’t any way to tell as it was also hollow. The base of the tree had started to rot out and because it was close to the house and our oil tank there wasn’t really any choice but to have it taken down before it fell down.
The timber has sat around seasoning for eleven months and now we’re running out of other wood to feed our woodburners this winter I decided earlier in the week that it was time to chop it up. Friday saw the chainsaw getting a service, and particularly a clean of its air filter which turned out to be absolutely filthy. Over the course of a few hours I chopped most of the timber into suitable size lumps and reduced the height of the stump by about 60cm (the people who took the tree down weren’t happy going any further than they did because there was barbed wire embedded in the tree, but I managed to cut that bit out enabling me to take out the wood below it). At the end I’d guess I had somewhere close to a tonne and a half of cut timber. I reckon I can get more out of the stump, but I need to empty out the hollow centre first, so the chain doesn’t have to dig through it:
Today however, I really ache. Mostly my back, from having to stoop with the saw to work on the wood. I intend to buy a new stand for cutting longs this year, but the pieces from this tree just wouldn’t fit into any kind of stand. Hopefully the muscles will get used to it as I still have a fair bit of timber to cut to fill our log store. At the same time as the beech we had a dead red maple cut down, a dying and rotting out holly and one of a pair of silver birches that were too close together. Those are still waiting to be chopped up. I also have a number of sycamore trunks to turn into firewood, too.