Tree Down

A Tawa tree came down in the Awakino Gorge this morning.
This one, rotten at the base, fell at a reasonable hour.

A truck hit the head of the tree and suffered a bit of damage, but in doing so smashed enough room for traffic to get through.

We pushed it off the road, cut it into managable bits and hauled it away.



Tawa is great firewood, splits easily, and is one of the only NZ native timbers that will burn green.
Good that ...

It Wood Happen ...

I'd just hit the "publish to blog thingie" on my last (most impressive) post.
I'm feeling all Bloggy smugness, when a car hurtles through the gate and the "Tree Down" cry goes up.

Now I don't know if the trees know something we don't, but I was called out at 2 a.m. this morning for a similar one ( Liquidamber ) that had also commited suicide.
So;


When you arrive, all is usually confusion, and anxiety. The truckies have deadlines and the log books are ticking.
For once they are pleased to see the Road Works Truck.

It was quite a reasonable size, but I winched to the side of the road, got rid of the traffic, and called out the calvary with the chainsaw.

I'll burn it in my fire this winter, just to make sure it's not a terrible spreading tree flu disease.

There is this big dead tree next to the Fart household. It is also close to the road. I have finally solved my firewood problems and removed a hazard at the same time. It was awkwardly leaning slightly toward the road, and dropping a tree with so much dead wood up high can be a bit dangerous. It doesn't look big in the photo, but that chainsaw at the base has a 30 inch bar. I climbed up on a ladder and tied it back to another tree with 4 tonne truck tie downs. Then set too with the chainsaw. Finally we cut the fence, and gave it a shove with a front end loader, and down it came. The fence is now fixed, and I have started cutting up a mountain of wood. Lawsoniana burns well and splits easily, and it has a lovely smell. I feel all manly and smug, and of course, warm.
Rest Area 300m