We're lumberjacks and we're OK

 

Well, make that we're OK except for being hot, tired, and sore.   I had expected that I'd be spending my spare time lately working on my cabinets but that plan changed when we discovered this big old ash tree had fallen out of our woods and into the field behind us. 

Andy and I went into lumberjack mode to chop it up into firewood and haul it up to the wood pile.  Sounds simple doesn't it?  I'll admit the project may well have gone quicker if I had more advanced chain saw sharpening skills but no matter how you slice it (and for that mater just cutting a tree up with a chain saw qualifies as real work) moving a tree this size is back breaking work.  I'd estimate that we cut up about 50 feet of tree with the large end, in the woods to the right in the photo, nearly two feet in diameter.  Here's a photo of the work in progress.

As of this afternoon all of the tree that was in the field has been cut up and moved although the bigger chunks will need to be split before they would have any chance of fitting in our fireplace.  That's a project that will wait, right now we're tired and past ready to call it a day.

By the way this ash tree had indeed been attacked by the infamous emerald ash borer and indeed we saw some of the critters on the tree bark as we worked.  I don't know if they are to blame for killing the tree though as the lower twenty feet or so of the tree's trunk (that is still standing in the woods) had rotted so much as to be nearly hollow.

cheers - dj