While out for a walk last week, Dan had spotted a big old Poplar tree that looked to be dead, standing just off the last bit of yard before the bush begins. He’s been talking about it ever since, and today we finally took action and cut it down. We wanted to do it while the ground was still frozen so we wouldn’t leave any big marks on the lawn and it would be easier to clean up after.
This tree was massive, and much more dead than we had 
anticipated one we got it on the ground. Lumberjack Dan, decked out in his chainsaw pants and hard hat, laid out a target of where the tree was going to fall, cleared a small path and went to town with the chainsaw. A thud, crash, bang and the tree was down, right on mark might I add.
We cut the trunk into larger slices, some were then halved and it was my job to send them through the log splitter for firewood pieces. We got the whole tree cut, branches somewhat picked up and the good firewood pieces stacked by the house. The punky stuff that is no good was dumped back by our fire pit. Looks like we are due for a bonfire!
The entire centre of the tree was soft and eaten away leaving a hollow core most of the way up the trunk. While splitting, I came across a few big pieces of an old bee hive and also an old squirrels nest hiding inside. What neat things you can come across when you start paying attention to nature.
Of course our dogs had to be right in there to check it all out later, the girls are such a big help. Dan’s promised to make me something neat out of the stump, I’m undecided on a wooden throne or a knitting chair in the bush (hehe). We definitely had a good workout, but this way we wont have any surprises or fallen trees. As I write this, I have a fire roaring with our fresh cut wood.
