My Christmas Tree

Tree Falling Epic Fails

This last week I was doing some tree falling – cutting down a small group of bug-killed trees and I once we started recording the action, I had an epic fail.

As I may have mentioned before, I have been spending a lot more time on the homestead, AKA the cabin. I go there and do cabin stuff like cutting down trees, cutting firewood, clearing brush, and all sorts of fun outdoorsy stuff.

Directing the Tree Fall Direction
Directing the Tree Fall Direction

As I said, last weekend I was clearing a patch of bug-killed trees and I already had 6 or 8 of the smaller trees on the ground and ready to be hauled to the wood pile when my film crew arrived.

We decided to film me cutting down the final tree of the day. What could go wrong? I was on a roll…

Yeah. Lots can go wrong when cutting down a tree. First off, I didn’t recognize how tight the canopy was in the area where I was falling the tree into. Fail. Failure to effectively judge the fall zone.

Then, I tried re-cutting the same tree just a couple feet up from where it was cut off the stump. Fail again.

Okay, let’s drop another tree on the stuck tree and get the mess on the ground. Fail. I left too much holding wood on the wrong side so when the second tree fell, it curled away from the stuck tree and slid to the ground. Third fail.

I went a little further back and took down a THIRD tree. This one hit the money mark and knocked the stuck tree to the ground. Success.

This was a bit of mess. But being honest, this is what learning is all about. Do your best and make sure nobody gets hurt.


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