Yep, that’s right. If the tree’s trunk is wider around than your chainsaw is long, it’s probably a bad idea. At least, that’s what Hermano Dias discovered yesterday at the Elder’s quorum service activity. He’d asked the elders to come over and help him clean up leaves around his house and cut down a tree that was semi-threatening to fall on his house.
It was actually pretty fun for the first little bit. We had a good showing from the quorum, and cleaned up a ton of leaves. And then when we finally got around to cutting down the tree, no one was sure what to do–none of them had ever used a chainsaw. They offered to let me cut down the tree with the chainsaw, which I thought was kind of weird. Being the gringo in the ward, when the hispanic people aren’t sure what to do, they typically say, “Hermano Tingen, why don’t you do it?” This happened last sunday when the sunday school teacher didn’t show up. I ended up teaching.
At the service project though, I had the sense to say no. Afterall, it wasn’t my tree, chainsaw, or house, and if the tree did end up falling on the house I’d never forgive myself. So Hermano Dias went back to the tree to cut it down. It took forever because, in the words of Hermano Dias, the chainsaw was so small it was only tickling the tree. But the chainsaw eventually won, and the tree started to fall… sort of. It wanted to fall, but he had to keep cutting and keep cutting.
Finally it came down. We had tied ropes to the tree to try and guide it down where we wanted it to fall. But that tactic didn’t really work either. Instead, the tree ended up trapped in the branches of some neighboring trees and never fell all the way down. When I told them I had to go they had tied the tree to someone’s truck and were trying to pull the tree away so that it would come free from the other trees branches. I was told later that it still hadn’t come out.
For your viewing pleasure, a picture of the tree caught in the branches of the other tree:
One Response
Oh, WOW! Our neighbors did a similar thing last autumn!
They still have a good sized stump from the pine tree that used to hang over our shed roof! They plan to build a treehouse with the stump someday, but what a process to watch the tree come down and try not to hit our roof. The chainsaws, the ropes tied around the tree and attached to a truck bumper and driving forward to pull the tree out. Alas, part of the tree remains. Yet, the birds are minus a long, well attended home……..