A Day With The Chainsaw

Can you tell the forest edge along the driveway and below the roadside vegetable garden is tidier? It is.

I managed to get the chainsaw running again. It is a bit temperamental, but it works. Four dead hemlocks were cut down along with a fair bit of randomness that was prep work for the utility company if they should ever come back and post-op work from the DOT's brutal chopping along the byway.

I have been cutting things into smaller neatly stackable pieces that are left to rot in place. It's not quite as quick and tidy as burning, but organization goes a long way in a messy forest.

The view down to my little brook is getting significantly more open. There were a lot of dead hemlocks down in there that have been coming down, many on their own. One true giant wrapped in a grape vine is still standing. Its lean is away from the house thank goodness.

I went in there and cut them all up into smaller pieces so they will rest on the ground, rot faster and not look quite so nasty.

Four hours was enough. Then it was time to rest, wander and contemplate my more tidy and more open forest edge. It will be nice not to have to look at so many dead hemlocks come summer.

It is taking a bit more time, but bit by bit I am expanding the management zone north and east and into the real forest. Tidy and pathways are the main goals. Anything else will be a bonus.