The fallen tree

 In May when we were having such a lot of rain we had a huge oak tree uproot and fall.  It is at the back of our property so there was no rush to do anything with it.  As usual, I never thought to take a photo at the time.  From June onwards we have had very little rain so the top of the tree dried out nicely and it was time to cut it up.  It must have been at least 75 feet high before it fell.  Such a shame to lose it.  

We started to cut it up this past week.

At this point there is about 15 more feet to cut up.  The branches have all been cut into usable size logs and stacked already.

The larger logs at the back of the woodshed are from a previous year and still have to be split.  We plan to rent a wood splitter when we have it all cut up and probably fell another tree to make the cost of renting it viable. (We only take down dead trees or old leaning trees that could uproot, we would never have cut down the tree that fell). For a splitter that can be towed home and can handle those big logs it costs $80 plus for a day to rent. But the guy at the rental place told us if we pick it up early Saturday morning we don't have to return it until Monday morning for the cost of just 1 day so that's what we will do. Below is what we need to split so far from this tree.

The tops of the branches are always a nuisance to deal with, it is horrible to pick up and load into the small trailer to take to the brush pile.  It takes up a lot of room and pokes you all over when picking it up. Unfortunately, right now I am not much help at all as my back is still very sore and standing and walking is a problem.  But, when my husband is cutting wood I have to be there incase of any problems.  So I was sitting and and watching him work which I find very frustrating.  I was looking at the branch tops and thought that some enterprising teenager could break that all up and sell it as fire starter.  Well, no teenagers anywhere around so I thought I can do that whilst sitting down.  Not to sell but to make fire starter kindling for ourselves.  So now that is what I do and I feel so much better for being productive.  

I reduced 2 piles like this:-

To this:-

Much easier to load up and haul and can be cut up too for small fires.

I broke up the small brittle top branches and bagged them in old Walmart plastic bags ready to just throw into the fire and they will easily light with just a few pieces of scrunched up old flyers.

Today I added to this pile of kindling bags and still have more to do.

So, that and finally finishing replacing the studs and siding on the back of the sunroom is what we have been up to these past weeks.  We still have to finish out the inside but no rush on that, we can do that over the winter months.