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TIMBERGREEN DAY 2 "On Tuesday we felled eight red oaks which had died of oak wilt this year. He demonstrated the Swedish technique for felling trees. I had read of this in Dave Johnson's "The Good Woodcutter's Guide" and have used it here. But it was very helpful to see it demonstrated. You have almost complete control of where to fell the tree. Daniel, Elizabeth, and I felled one or more of his trees. He tries to fell them while doing the minimum amount of damage to other trees and to the forest floor. It is simply amazing." -------Wallace Baird (my dad) |
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Once again, dad has summed it up. |
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Walking down to the barn in the morning to put on our "tree cutting gear". Passed Jim's folks' house and there is an adorable horse munching under the apple tree. |
Jim showed us how to prepare the tools. He uses a clamp for holding the saw while sharpening it. Much better than how I usually do it. |
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Mom is obviously delighted to be here. |
We loaded up the tools and took a drive into the forest to get trees! I am on an ATV riding behind Jim on the log hauler. Mom, dad & Eliz are behind me in the rented SUV. |
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| The 1st step of the technique he showed us for felling trees. It is a Swedish technique and is very accurate as dad says at top of page. It involves cutting a sharp angle cut like above, plunging straight through the log about 3/4 inch behind the angle cut. Then removing the saw from the plunged hole, and cutting from the other side of the tree. Don't try this based on this explanation. Very effective and worth studying. |
Jim teaching Elizabeth how to drop an Oak. I was retreating quickly. Sorry sis. |
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| After cutting the tree, Jim explained what we could learn from the stump. He could show us how many years ago it got sick and other interesting stuff. Very cool. |
Jim Teaching. |
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| A fetching arch. First time I had seen one of these. Great tool for pulling a log out of the forest without getting dirt on the log and without tearing up the forest floor. | A big rainstorm came so we loaded up what we had and made for the house. We were in the woods with all the machines when the storm roared in. Little bit of excitement thrown in the mix. |
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After the rain stopped (and after another great lunch), Jim is unloading the logs from our labors onto the sawmill loading platform. |
Elizabeth watching the loading. |
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After finishing, we went to my mom & dads alma mater, The University of Wisconsin. This is on the drive away from Jims. |
The temperature was perfect & the clouds were spectacular. Timbergreen is located in Spring Green, Wisconsin. It is about 1.5 hrs from Madison. |
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| Rower on Lake in Madison. Right next to the University. | State Street at University of Wisconsin. Capital building is lit up in background. |
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Wisconsin Capital building closer up. |
This is where mom & dad lived when they went to graduate school at the Univ of Wisconsin at Madison in the late 1950's. |