The Lumberjack Bill Show: Balancing Act

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: The following program shows dangerous stunts performed by a professional, Lumberjack Bill. Parental guidance and caution is strongly advised with respect to all content presented herein. Lumberjack Bill (Bill Pocock) discourages anyone to use a chainsaw axe, hatchet, hand saw, any power tool, ATV, chisel, knife, and the like) unless licensed to operate, and encourages spectators to stand at a safe distance from all lumberjack activity].

It's The Lumberjack Bill Show!!!

Hi, I'm Lumberjack Bill.

On today's segment, I'm gonna show you what to do with a hung up tree. That is until things go horribly, horribly right.

Here's the pictures...

Here you can see how the cut tree got stuck like.
So, first thing I do is get the cut end on the ground by
undercutting the contact points. And with a kick or two
the cut end is on the ground. Hmm....


I start to 'walk' the hung up tree toward the hang.
I start with cutting into the trunk about waist
height from the top until the cut starts to pinch the bar.


Then I match the cut line from underneath.
After the two cut ends pinch together,
I often have to kick them apart. Maybe it would
be safer for me to throw a log at it from a safe distance....


Now normally, I will progressively cut four foot sections
off the bottom of the tree until the butt end walks vertical,
then I direct it down with a push. Unpredictable stuff.
The remaining tree can fall almost anywhere.
Dead limbs often fall on anyone underneath at this stage.


And sometimes the tree goes perfectly horizontal
and just stays there. I call it 'Balancing Act' and like
how the branches drape over the trail.

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....

Fuelwood Season

Makin' fuelwood.

Did a bunch of things today, back from a week in the city.

With all the trails cut and cleared for end of season, it's time to cut fuelwood timber and pile it along trails for winter sled pick-up.

Some photos of the day...

Two yearlings grazed past me while throwing

slash off the trail. The doe passed nearby.