I have really been enjoying the labor savings a chainsaw provides when clearing our property. There is kind of an art to it as well. I have read a few books/manuals on felling a tree as well as bucking it once it has fallen. There are a few forces that aren’t covered in any of the manuals that I’ve come across here that adds an element of danger. Vines.
The vines bind the trees at the top creating a hinge point that doesn’t allow the trees to fall as they normally would. I’ve had trees that literally hang in mid air once the trunk has been chopped. The only way to get them down is to either wait for the wind to work them down, or to take the surrounding trees down with it as a group. It requires a little more thinking and planning.
Algarrobos Tree (BK standing at the base)
Of course all the fun is over when the tree is on the ground, then the bucking and chopping starts to get it into manageable sizes. The tree being cut down here is an Algarrobos and is about 60 foot tall. These particular trees can grow up to 150 feet with a 6 foot diameter base. I think the trunk on this one was maybe 12 inches in diameter. We kept calling them “eyeglass case” trees because the fruit look like leather cases you would keep your eyeglasses in. The fruits are inedible, but the wood is more useful than most of the other weedy trees.
Eyeglass Case Looking Seed Pod
With the chainsaw as I said, you can make a hinge that will guide the tree where to fall. This particular cut is going a little against how the tree would naturally fall, which is why we had to wait for the wind to take it. The hinge technique worked perfectly and it fell exactly where I wanted it to. It’s fun to learn and use new tools.
Once it is down the processing begins! The trunk is straight and I think we can make use of it. It is kind of sad to cut down a tree that has been growing for a long while. We are connected to it in a way that I’ve never really thought of before. I mean I’ve bought wood furniture, firewood, wood to make fences and build houses but I’ve never actually been a part of the process of killing it and chopping it up. It makes you appreciate it more, just as growing fruit trees, vegetable seeds and animals make us appreciate our food much more. We feel so much more connected to everything here.
I understand the pain of chopping down the trees. My dad is in the process of chopping down a very old mango tree whose fruits I ate while growing up and whose branches served as a home for our chickens and I am actually mourning it.
And “La Iguana en la Ventana”, one of my favorite songs at the moment, was created by a gay songwriter when his homophobic neighbor justified chopping down a neighborhood tree that was home to an iguana because according to him those who don’t give fruit deserve to be chopped down. Yes, it was also a quip against gay marriage so the song was born out of rage and frustration.
About the algarrobas, let me share some trivia with you. A long time ago before the time of food stamps and video games algarrobas were both a food source and a source of entertainment. Poor people would eat the pulp of the algarrobas. They were never a cherished culinary treat as evidenced by their nickname of “cat poop” (mierda de gato) but they were better than starving to death. And the kids would use the seeds to play “gallitos”, which is a game that consists of tying a rope through a hole in the seed and using it to strike the seed of your opponent in an attempt to break it. The name of the game translates to roosters and it comes from cockfighting. Those two uses of the algarroba have pretty much become obsolete and cockfighting will probably disappear in a generation or two.
And speaking of vines and chainsaws, BK of the jungle, watch out for that tree.
“We are connected to it in a way that I’ve never really thought of before. I mean I’ve bought wood furniture, firewood, wood to make fences and build houses but I’ve never actually been a part of the process of killing it and chopping it up. It makes you appreciate it more, just as growing fruit trees, vegetable seeds and animals make us appreciate our food much more. We feel so much more connected to everything here.”
Our experience with cutting trees and growing gardens and landscapes has been much the same as Britton’s comment above: a new respect for the age and biological function of trees/ shrubs, and then awe at the mass of wood, leaves, seed pods and roots left behind when they are cut down.
In California we have spent time planting oak trees, and in Utah, Colorado Blue Spruce and Utah Juniper. We also try to save trees from being destroyed in these dry climates. One picture I will never forget is a family of racoons lined up on a tree limb behind our home on Selrose. Up to then, I’d never really thought of trees as “homes.” After graduating from the Cal Naturalist program last year, I realize that not only the top, but the roots and soils of trees are homes to all sorts of critters.
So happy to see your awareness of mother earth blossom in your life in Rincon, Britton and Cassie.
Your posts about the flora and fauna of your adopted home are beautiful.
“Those who live surrounded by beauty become eloquent.” — Jalaluddin Rumi
Cocffighting wont dissapear in near future. Cockfighting have been in PR since the Spaniards for about 500 years and we are in 2014and still has its own Commision so it seems still strong enough as a matter of fact i ll believe we will have Cockfighting in Orlando and New York City,will see Bullfighting in south of San Antonio depending on demographic change
Gesh, you are not only getting tan you are also getting super fit. Look at those abs. Ha ha…
P.s. its not bk the termite…it has always been bk the beaver.