He's a lumberjack

We recently noticed a couple of very poorly looking gum trees at the block, on their last legs and the only green on them being mistletoe.  We would normally keep old dead trees standing for as long as they can because even in their death they support so much wildlife but as this monster (mid photo) could well fall on our house (when it's built) we decided sadly it needed to come down..... but it wasn't going to give in easily.

Ropes were placed as close to the top of the tree as the lads could reach and secured via a snatch rope to the back of Roberts Toyota. 

First up was Robert but sadly his chainsaw was playing up and with the oil failing to cool the chain it soon looked like he was going to attempt to burn the tree down!  After quite a few tries progress was halted.

And out came the axe.  This gum has extremely tough wood and the axe didn't seem to make that much impression on it though the wedge was forming.  So Pete, Roberts brother was dispatched to get his chainsaw.

Mean time Rick dusted off his 'not quite so powerful but nearly new' chainsaw, and before long was making a great impression on the tree.

So much so that without much more ado and before Pete returned with his chainsaw down it came!  You can just about make out Rick heading the opposite direction to the way the tree was going.

With quite a spectacular thump and lots of dust it was finally down and what beautiful wood, it smelt fantastic and looked far to good to be used for fire wood.  We dreamt of using the trunk for the new kitchen work surfaces and carving the stump into a garden table. The possibilities were endless.

So we made enquiries with the local carpenter whose knowledge of trees and wood in this area is second to none.  He also has a portable wood slicer (which I know is called something else but the name escapes me). But disappointingly  it looks like we won't be able to use it for anything other than firewood.  He advised that the wood will very quickly split as it dried out and will loose it's beautiful rich red colour.  Hay ho, I'm sure when the time comes to do the kitchen work tops we will find the perfect wood, or granite or whatever they are supposed to be made out of.... it will all happen with perfect timing.

The other tree was much smaller and was down before I could even focus my camera properly, so I missed recording it's felling.

After the excitement of the tree felling and a delicious BBQ of amongst other yummy things homemade pork sausages we went home feeling slightly disappointed but mainly happy and content.