As our deck project nears completion, I had a realization that the trees nearby had many branches capable of falling and injuring potential guests/campers.
Everything Involves Wood 🪵
The following sentence contains the word "wood" 7 times, but not without good reason. Our wooden fence project is on hold because our lumberjack is out of wood, so while waiting for him to cut more wood we began a wooden deck project using recycled wood, but then briefly stopped this project because there was wood hanging high above that endangered our wood below.
On the opposite side of our property is the partially finished fence. Everyone in the village thought the idea was crazy and weird, but now that some of the pickets have been installed we are getting compliments on how nice it looks. There was doubt as to why I wanted to stagger the pickets on opposite sides, but I did this because to allow the extreme mountain winds to pass through while also allowing passing cars and motos to get a small preview of what's inside the fence.
Youngest Chainsaw-ist Recruited 🪚
Our deck project is nearly done, but even before we started this there were three old trees at the river's edge that previously supported the hammock hut. A lot of land surrounding the roots was lost during last year's flood, and this combined with the fact these trees are all tall, heavy, and old, made me want to have tops cut off so that no branches can fall down on the new deck area, or even worse, people hanging out on the deck.
Luckily or unluckily almost everyone in the village has a chainsaw, albeit mostly for illicit purposes. Usually trees are cut from the bottom to fell them, so most of the soldiers that parade as nighttime illegal lumberjacks in the village aren't exactly expert tree climbers, and therefore a job like tree trimming is an entirely different skillset. The youngest chainsaw owner in the village was up for the challenge, and asked $25+ USD for the job, a price we thought was quite fair considering the risk level.
Helper Required 🙋♂️
The day's designated tree climber happened to be the father of the kid I take home from school occasionally and also the father of the girl Srey-Yuu rides to school with on a moto together. We didn't have to search very far before finding a willing amateur tree trimmer, and he brought a friend/helper to help him, but this guy's belly means mother gravity wanted him to stay on the ground floor.
In the above photo there is a human, can you see him? He was pretty hard to spot behind all the branches. The first tree to go was the scariest and largest one, and because of the angle he made his tree stand and how heavy his chainsaw is, he wasn't able to cut the notch on the river's side of the tree, thus almost guaranteeing it's safe fall towards the river.
After about an hour he realized things had gotten out of hand and he wasn't sure which way the tree would fall, and was just gonna cut as much as he could and try to escape when necessary. I unfortunately didn't catch this on video because the treetop fell with a gust of wind while we were all watching and waiting. I was recording video for several minutes and had just shut off the camera when the trimmer stopped for a cigarette break. It fell at such a bad angle that we all ran for our lives while laughing like children from the adrenaline rush.
Although I didn't catch the scary unpredictable first treetop falling, I did catch a few of the highlights from smaller branch cuts on the other trees. Hopefully in the next year or two the trees will grow new branches at a lower and safer height, and I plan to soon reinforce the roots with river rocks and dirt. All the trees weigh a lot less now as well, so I hope this will decrease any chance of them toppling in a storm and ripping up the ground near our soon-to-be new deck.
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Return from 🪓 Tree Trimming To Prevent Future Camper Injuries 🏕️ & A Brief Run For Our Lives 🏃♂️ to Justin Parke's Web3 Blog
