Tree Felling

Dave came round this afternoon and we finally spent an hour or so making a little progress. The slope of collapsed rock, which is the next area we're focussing on, now has a load a fir trees growing on it. They're actually fairly tall. Before I'm able to do any more excavating of this area, the trees (or at least the largest shown here below beforehand) will have to go.

The aim is to drop it down accurately between those two shrubs in the foreground without damaging them.  Dave dons the Pistonheads safety helmet (which actually did protect him from a falling pine cone).

And then climbs up the spoil to the base of the trunk.....

Where he started by stripping some of the lower branches.

Before downing tools and refusing to do the chain-sawing. So it was left to me, to make a classic wedge cut at the front of the tree and then the single cut at the back..... 

What happened next though was unexpected comedy. The tree gracefully fell to 45 degrees, stopped and hung there! Rather like the toppled statute of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.  

We then all watched bemused as it sank several more feet in extra slow motion before the trunk finally cracked and it dropped to the ground. Video posted here.

After which Dave went to work, chopped it up, and put it in the boot of his car. 

I did say that the next bit was going to involve "just a little bit" more work, didn't I?