Droppin' Sugar

I'll show you the nice, non-scary still photos of a sugar maple tree I felled along a trail yesterday.

The semi-scary time was between cutting out the front wedge and the actual falling of the tree. When I did the back cut, the tree fell to about a 30 degree angle from vertical, caught up on branches from two adjacent trees.

I had to go all 'Lumberjack Bill' on the mostly cut 16" diameter stump. I finished the cut and gave the trunk a few good kicks and away it went. It can get dangerous when a cut tree gets hung up because it can suddenly shift and fall unpredictably, kids. You can be standing there, just watching it, and it comes down without time for you to move out of the way if you're too close. From moment to moment, alone in the woods, I don't know what's going to happen next.

I survive The Game of Death. This time.

There's so many dangerous elements to dropping trees in dense woods. Maybe I'll have a Lumberjack Bill series of posts now and then to describe the many dangers.

Why, just the other day, right after dropping a tree, a 2 inch branch fell 50 feet straight down and slammed into my face. Lucky I had my face visor down. If it was a 3 inch branch I'd have a broken nose and be spitting teeth. If it was a 4 inch branch....