Ten Fewer Trees

15 August 2012
6:46 AM

Sunrise at	5:39 AM	in direction	54°	Northeast
Sunset at	10:08 PM	in direction	306°	Northwest

Duration of day: 16 hours, 29 minutes (6 minutes, 53 seconds shorter than yesterday)

Trees partialy denuded

Five birch and five spruce were sacrificed on Monday evening.  At my request, Gary and my son-in-law, Jamie, opened up the lawn area by taking out 3 very healthy and very large birch trees.  They also removed one that was in a poor place for backing out of the garage.  I identified 6 spruce trees, five of which block winter mid day light.  One of those was especially large for spruce in this region.

Each one was a sacrifice to Gary and me, but we made our peace with it and let them go.  I welcome the light in the front yard, although we have so many immediately behind those we removed, that we are still securely surrounded in my forest.  It was a minor change.  Just enough to encourage lawn and flowers and to allow better access to the septic system if it fails for any reason.

Last night I removed branches from two of the trees, but you can see this is not a quick process.  I remove all branches that can be clipped off with my pruning shears.  Then I strip the thicker of those of smaller branches and twigs.  These I have placed to the side for curing over winter.  I then carry all the remaining plant material to the back of the truck to be hauled to the transfer station.  I will be working on these each night and into the weekend.  Then I wil get out my small chain saw and cut log segments up to the point where the diameter is too big.  Then Gary will have to take over.

We are debating if we will try to dry these out more for this year or let them winter for use next year.  We have placed pallets on an extension to our driveway that the former owners used to park their boat.  We will place the spruce covered to dry.

We have been debating whether we will attempt to use the birch this year. They were near the end of the growing season as many of the trees have entire branches that are yellow now.  That means leaving the leaves on to draw out the moisture is not going to help much.  They will be very green for a long time yet.  I have been told we could possibly use them in January or Feburary if it is very cold and dry over the fall.

In the meantime, Gary is cutting dry wood from one of the local businesses that are rejects for his miling enteprise.  My daughter's kitchen cupboards are made from wood milled there.  They are exquisite.  But what he doesn't want, we can cut up and haul home for as little as $150 a cord.  We could get three cords that way since it is relatively dry and also purchase two cords of spruce.

I intended to buy five cords of birch from a supplier in Salcha, but he has been delayed so long this year due to the rain and also due to migratory birds that the wood will be as green as what we just cut down.  I am putting us on the list for the first load in May after break up.

So, we sacrified trees - we have debated that for the entire time we have been here.  There are more we should remove.  We have several in the back yard that are a little too close to the house, but for now we have done all we an bear. I especially grieve the loss of the spruce.  They are a fire hazard and keeping all of them far from the house ensures our home is less ikely to burn and our insurance remains reasonable.  Insurance companies do inspect properties regularly for fire hazards and then give notice to owners of what they must remove, so I suppose I can rationalize that I was doing it to protect our property.