Timber!

Bartlett family wood drying last fall

Winter is firewood season in these parts; not only do we burn it in our wood stoves to keep our homes cozy and our pipes from freezing, but at the same time we harvest wood for next winter. The snowy (and icy) ground makes it much easier to move felled trees, and bare branches are infinitely easier to work with than leafy ones. The split wood also needs time to dry, so it can release its energy most efficiently (and not clog up our chimneys with gunk).  And what better way to go after this job than with a new toy machine?

No, he is not a dwarf!

Enter Steve’s skidder (pronounced “skiddah” in New Englandy speak). It’s a ginormous wood moving machine that is, clearly, wicked fun to play with operate. It’s recent appearance at Booty Family Farm opened up a host of new possibilities, including practical ones. We had been eyeing a huge old oak tree that was overhanging our solar panels (obviously less than ideal) and were delighted that it could be taken down “in house” rather than subbing the job out. (Click here to see a short video of Steve arriving at our house with the skidder.)

Before I go any further about this operation, let me say that the decision to take down this tree was very difficult to make. Forget about the fact that the tree shaded our solar panels in the summer and left me diving for cover in the fall as acorns pounded the panels sounding like rifle shots. This was a wonderful old giant of a tree that could well be home to a host of critters. Todd assured me that he he saw no nests in the branches, but I was skeptical (and remain so).

Have you ever come across the wonderful Hungarian children’s writer and illustrator Kate Seredy? Some of her delightful books are still in print, including ones that Elsa and I have read and enjoyed during Cooking School sessions: The Good Master, The Singing Tree, Philomena, and The Tenement Tree. (My favorite of Seredy’s — and a favorite book of all time — is The Chestry Oak, but I’m not ready to read it to Elsa just yet because I’m quite sure it will make me cry.)

Anyway, The Tenement Tree is about a boy who spends time in the country with an aunt who is an artist and introduces him to the wonders of nature. He especially enjoys discovering the diversity of life in and around a gnarled old tree, comparing animals’ characteristics to the people in the crowded tenement building that was his city home. Read that book and soak in Seredy’s lovely illustrations, and you’ll never wish to disturb a tree again! Where our oak tree was concerned, though, I was outvoted. So it goes.

Back to Operation Timber. This was a big job and had to be executed with finesse. The photo shows Steve cutting the notch that would insure the tree would fall in the desired direction, with the extra insurance of the skidder pulling it onto the open meadow and away from the solar panels and the house. To hear Steve explain the plan, check out this video on my YouTube channel.

The staging for the operation took the better part of an hour. When the tree finally came down, I was walking our dog Beau on Mount Israel Road. There was no mistaking the rumbling, thudding crash of mighty tree trunk meeting snowy ground. I knew without doubt that the deed was down, and hearing no dismayed yelling, cursing, or screaching of metal, I could safely assume that all had gone well.

Red Oak down!

The felled tree was impressive indeed, and equally noteworthy was the speed with which Steve and his skidder cleared the trunk and branches. (Todd has an excellent bonfire ready to go. We even added our Christmas tree to it 🙂

You’d think we’d get a lot of prime firewood out of the oak, and we certainly will get some, but the girth of the trunk makes for awkward splitting. We may have to dial 1-800-Paul-Bunyan.

How old was the oak? Steve and Todd did a rough count of the rings and estimated 120 years — definitely a centenarian.

And so it goes, another exciting day on Booty Family Farm, where, as Diane often says, “We sure know how to have fun!”

Todd at the wheel!