allan of the jungle - watch out for that tree.....

so i've got this beautiful big tree in my front yard... looks eerily creepy at dusk/evening/night time... i love it!

i guess yesterday or during the night last night, a branch comes down after all the wet weather we've had this week

and you KNOW i LOVE the rain, it's been so good seeing the water everywhere for a few days in a row - and still more to come :-)

so this afternoon i get home from work ready to start cutting it up, prepared to do it manually with a hand saw....

what's this? no handsaw?

checked in every possible location, thrice....

i guess a hack saw will have to suffice for now....

and then neighbour bear comes over to see what's going on and was a bit surprised to see the branch that came down, and leaning incredibly heavily on the wire fence (with about 4 lines of barbed wire in it, mind you)

he suggests one of the neighbours in the court, for me to go and ask to have a lend of their chainsaw and someone to use it for me.... or a circular saw might help...

so i get my circular saw and an extension lead.... that helped to clear all the smaller branches (after taking out about 80% of the smaller ones via hack saw anyway lol)

and then the tough task of dealing with the massive main trunk of the branch (would've easily been about 300mm at it's thickest, if not more)

so i then pull out an axe and a log splitter.... gave the middle bit (that was sticking forwards into my yard - bit of an angled/banana shaped branch) a bit of attention...

too bad i didn't have a shitty day at work otherwise i might've been able to get through it like that as stress relief!!! hahaha

so i keep hacking away with the axe and the log splitter, make a decent dent about a third of the way into the guts of it..... then i try an alternative method...

instead of trying to hack the whole thing into pieces (as i really would've needed a chainsaw), i decide to take away the rest of the small bits on my side of the fence...

then - i navigate, incredibly slowly and carefully through the barbed wires (summer thin work pants with crotch vents did not make this an easy or comfortable task....) to the other side....

then with hack saw once again in hand, i cut away at the smaller branches on the trees on the neighbour's side of the fence, that were holding up the main branch from the fallen bit of my tree.....

eventually it started to fall further to the ground....

after a couple more careful navigations through the barbed wires (*gasp* take it slow! don't rip your balls off!) i manage to heave the branch onto the neighbour's side of the fence so it was no longer placing any pressure on the fence wires....

so that's how it'll stay for quite some time (i imagine), until such a time as i am able to chop up the rest of it and use it for the fire place next year in winter :-)

moral of the story - as much as a tree can be attractive, when looking at blocks of land to purchase, just be prepared for the awkward removal of fallen branches in barbed wires!!!

phew....

showered and tidy and now waiting for a mate to come and take me out for a steakhouse dinner, his shout thankfully :-) i think i've worked up an appetite after an hour hacking at trees lol