Tree Over The Footpath

Just the other day I said to our neighbouring landowner that there's a dead poplar that looks like it could fall at any time. Normally this wouldn't be such an issue but it was leaning over the public footpath so I thought it was worth mentioning.

Right over the footpath!

Then on Saturday evening I had my first proper walk round my fields in a week & I noticed this tree hanging over the stile. Not good. Not good at all. I never want anyone to get hit by a tree but least of all when it's on my land (even if the tree isn't mine!).
I popper over to see "old" Ken (who helps look after the neighbours land) and we decided to sort it out first thing in the morning.
It was a little more tricky than we would have liked, as it was hung up in the other tree and we didn't want it to land on either the stile or the fence if we could help it.
I managed to get my little John Deere 2020's loader under the main trunk to take the weight whilst Ken cut it from the stump, I then (only just mind you) managed to lift it on top of the hedge. The weight of the tree however meant that I couldn't get the back wheels to grip.
We had to try something else. I got a ladder and a long chain, climbed up and attached it to the trunk, turned the tractor round and pulled her off the hedge at a good enough speed that it would miss the stile as well! It all went to plan in the end!

Ken clearing a path for the footpath

 I decided that I might as well log the wood there and then so logged it all up and we split it 50-50.

Firewood for my efforts

Poplar isn't much good as firewood but it's better than nothing and it's cleared up the path without anyone moaning at us. I was quite pleased with my efforts for a Sunday and felt like I'd been a good neighbour again (although to a different one this time)!

Tree Karma

My brother is a tree surgeon and he often says about the state of his "tree karma". That is how many trees he cut down compared to how many he's planted or saved.
Mine pretty high as I've planted a lot more than I've cut down but sometimes trees have to go.

Ash growing in the wrong place

The Ash tree in the front garden was one that I marked to come out from the first time we looked at buying the house over 12 months ago. Although it's not massive it's growing too close to the house and it's under the power lines so unfortunately it's got to go.

Spot the Idiot

 Why this came about was today some of my family came to see our daughter, my dad being a typical Alviti couldn't just come and relax.

"Lets take that tree down" He said before even going inside for a coffee.

Not how most families spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon together!

I cut all the higher branches down by hand, up in the tree, as we worked out that the tree was going to be longer than the width of the garden. We only just worked this out as we were just going to fell it in one go (good job I'm more cautious than my father and made him work it out! - He has a friend who once got it out wrong and felled a massive tree straight onto his Daihatsu truck). Some of these high branches we tied a rope to and pulled them as I cut them to keep them from falling towards the power lines.

The king of firewood won't go to waste

The light faded fast so I ended up logging it by floodlight, but at least all I've got to do now is split and stack the wood. I might even use a bit of it for a weird carving I've been asked to do.

As for my tree karma I've got 25 trees to plant when/if it drys up so I'm not too worried!

How's everyones tree karma looking?