Budget Tree Surgery

Following an informal quote of $5K to remove an old rotten tree in our garden, it was time to DIY........how card can it be! Biggest challenge - the entire tree was leaning over our neighbours fence and more importantly their brand new septic tank system. No room for error......oh, its its my first complete tree felling experience.  

After cutting the first small branch with a chainsaw, it made me realise that balancing at the end of a ladder whilst cutting chunks from the very tree that is supporting the ladder is a recipe for disaster. The only escape route, was drop the chainsaw, get down the ladder and run – a bit too slow to escape a falling branch. So, a bit of research on the interweb and we have a homemade Dorsett rope saw. Plan 2 – throw saw over branch, stand to the side of the tree and saw the blade back and forth, run when cracking is heard – easy.  

I now know that trees a heavily over engineered. I found that the first  ‘crack’, which was followed by me doing a Linford Christie style sprint, came about 10min of sawing before a branch was even near breaking.  Noting that there are only so many times that I can beat Linford out of the blocks, it was time for Plan 3 – saw until first ‘crack’ and then pull the thing down with rope.      

Now you can probably see the flaw in my plan in the above photo. I took all of the easy branches first and left the biggest, most threatening until last.  The last branch was the one which, if it fell naturally, would destroy the neighbours septic tank and that would be messy in many ways. Time for plan 4   - 2 mates, several tensioned ropes and a Land Rover.....all trying to get the tree to fall in any direction but the way it wanted.

One hour of nervous cutting (with the neighbour watching!), low range power in the Land Rover and it falls perfectly.....Job done...............the $5K quote doesn’t seem so bad now.  

Firewood for another cold Canberra winter