Wednesday 2 January 2013

Tuesday 10th January 12

Up fairly early and got the shredder out, and a big blue tarpaulin-sheet to shred onto.  Did all the foliage from the pine tree, a 1m3 builder's dumpy bag full, and a load of Christmas tree branches too.  Eventually I was able to empty the dumpy bag of unshredded stuff onto the sheet, and fill it with all the shredded stuff.  With it all shredded, it didn't fill it completely but it was still almost too heavy to move.  What will I do with it all I wonder?

Just as I finished, my gardener friend Nick arrived, as arranged.  We had lunch and then prepared to take down the pine tree trunk.  I'd asked him to come and help as he wants to inoculate the trunk with Fir Oyster mushrooms. I first needed to take off the top metre or so of the trunk, as I didn't think the trunk would clear the phone line if I left it so tall.  So I tied the top with a rope and then tied the rope to the lower part of the trunk, so the top wouldn't fall down and do damage or go somewhere where I didn't want it to go.  Then I started a cut with the chainsaw, but I wasn't happy using the chainsaw up the ladder so I finished it off with the bow saw. The lump eventually fell, and was caught by the rope, just as intended.  I was able to untie it and throw it down where I wanted it to go.  Then I retied the rope to the new top of the trunk and removed the ladders.

I then cut out a wedge from the trunk, at waist height, facing where I wanted the trunk to fall, which was onto our front garden.  Then I asked Nick to gently pull on the rope as I cut from the opposite side.  The trunk fell exactly as expected... I was really pleased!  This was a 'professional' job!  Then I chopped the trunk up into about 6 pieces,of a length that Nick says will be good for mushroom logs.  He'll buy some spawn off Adrian and come and do some inoculation in the next few weeks.  I'll have one or two logs and he'll have the rest.

Nick got off home and I spent quite a bit more time clearing up the front, chainsawing some bits and bobs, and cutting some smaller pieces with the loppers. 

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