Back again and trying to include a few more "original" type photos as they are all starting to look the same. Most of the windbreaks now left on the main property are tight with citrus still being picked either side. The wind was playing around today so only dropped 65 on a different property. I left the main property alone and will do so until the remaining citrus has been picked. The Casuarinas I dropped today are the oldest trees across all the properties. In my wisdom I left the 32" bar hanging on the wall at home (despite bringing the chains!) so took them on with the 24" bar. A 32" bar would have made the job a LOT easier. To be honest this wood was that tough even the 3120 would have been considered.
These trees hadn't been irrigated for many years and despite the main lot of Casuarinas being soft these were HARD. The old Snellerized 7900 would not easily pull a 24" bar and well set up semi chisel chain with an 8 pin sprocket. I ended up fitting a 7 pin sprocket on it and it was happy again! These trees were landing with one massive thump and I even ended up with some onlookers for a while as the area where I was working was adjacent to a main road. Every tree that hit the deck engulfed the road with dust - hence the attention.
This run of 65 older trees is the most fun I've ever had tree felling. They had massive canopies and decent trunks. To give you an idea of how hard the cutting was I was averaging 4-5 trees per tank with a 24" bar!!!
In the centre of the run there was an old horse yard. One of the roof beams was touching the tree so I decided to cut off the end of the beam with the saw in case there was any unforseen load on the tree.
And of course I'll never hit the tin with the saw while I'm doing it will I???
Oh yes I will. Scratch one nicely sharpened chain...
This run took a while simply because the trees were so big. A lot of wedging was required, and the wood was so damn hard. These particular trees would make excellent firewood or even be good for slabbing. The growth rings on these were very close. It took about 3 1/4 hours for the 65 trees.
I went out yesterday as well for 7 hours and dropped nearly 300 in good wind. Nothing different there though so no piccys.
I have a few other tree jobs to do for people over the next few weeks so may even get some happy snaps there.