Sudden Branch Drop

In the middle of last week (just before all these storms broke) I was in my workshop when I heard a massive crash and bang, I rushed outside and saw three very scared children running for the house. 

They had just been 20m away from this giant oak tree picking berries when a huge branch had suddenly dropped from the tree. Luckily far enough away from it to not get hurt but close enough to scare them! This sudden branch drop is quite common during times of drought with broad leaf trees. 

Giant Oak Tree Reduction

Anyone who's been reading this blog for a few years knows I have quite a few giant oak trees on my property and we try to do something to at least one of them each year to try and make them last a bit longer. 

All the tree's are in their later years but some are in worst states than others. Luckily for me my brother is a tree surgeon so performing this work is usually done for a swap of my trade, or just because he's such a nice brother! 

The poor shape of the tree. 

 He came with his friend and fellow tree climber, Chris, last Saturday and they set to work straight away. This is a tree that's by the road and I think it's been struck by lightening in the past. Lots of dead wood and straggly branches. 

Putting the line in the tree

 Luckily all I had to do was keep them fed and watered all day and watch the road at a few points. They got loads done. 

A game of spot my brother!

Out on a limb

After the reduction

Some firewood and brash

They both worked hard all day and the tree looks so much better by the end. I've also ended up with lots of firewood to sort out, a great bonus to this type of work. The tree should also be less likely to drop branches now and hopefully it'll live a lot longer yet! 

Who else has been getting work done to trees on their property?

Branch Out Of the Oak Tree

With some heavy winds at the weekend one of our oak trees suffered the loss of one of its limbs.

 Typically this is the only tree that we've done some major work on trying to preserve, but the damage isn't too great. It amazes me when what seems like a small branch falls out of a large tree like this, the branch is as big as medium tree! Huge amounts of wood are in these trees! I'll do a post on the nine large oaks we've got here at some point.

I'll have to get the chainsaw out next weekend and log the branch for some of next years firewood and then get my brother to climb up and tidy it all up a bit.

Anyone else having to do work to try to stop their old trees falling apart?

The Man In The Oak Tree

I was sat under one of our old oak trees at the weekend.

When I looked up I decided that it's "face" didn't look to happy!

This is a beautiful old tree and I'm fairly sure it's hollow all the way down. I must climb it one day, or get my brother to! We are lucky to have such interesting trees on our land, this old oak is slowly dieing as it's hundreds of years are drawing to a close, maybe we will be it's last custodian or maybe it will out live me yet. 

Can everyone else see the face or am I just being odd?



P.S Sorry to the person who posted on this when blogger put it up too soon the other day - I seem to have lost your comment.

Trying To Preserve Our Old Oak Trees

On our little 5 acre patch we've got nine large oak trees. Four of these are huge and none have had any work done to them in a long time.

The large branch on the left is the one with a split right up the middle

Separating two of our fields are three of the biggest oaks which are quite beautiful. The middle of these has a long branch that is split right down the middle, the branch itself is the size of a tree and I was worried that if it breaks it might rip a big section of the trunk out with it.



Roping in

 So I called an the expert. My expert! It's quite handy having a brother who is a fully trained tree surgeon. He decided that I was right and the branch needed some work on it but to remove the whole thing would make the tree unbalanced, So instead he removed the last 25ft or so.


Spot the brother

I'm under no illusions here, although I'm fine with heights, there is no way you could get me up there wielding a chainsaw!

An April morning up a tree

A much lighter branch a few weeks on

 He did a really good job and having the weight removed from the branch seems to have made it much better. Hopefully now when it's in full leaf it won't catch the wind the same and it should last a few more years!

Some firewood into the bargain

All I've got to do now is burn the brash and split the firewood! If we can do a little bit of work like this every year then we should make these old oaks last a lot longer and provide the material for keeping us warm over winter!