It did not take them long to make sure that it would not remain standing for long. Ben especially loves Ash trees.
They may look sweet and innocent to us, but if you happen to be a tree, this is your worst nightmare....
They even dig out all the roots.
Seeing as the poor tree was well and truly doomed, I decided to get out my new favorite tool - the battery powered chainsaw.....
The first time I heard about battery powered chainsaws a few years ago, I just shook my head in disgust. But, lithium batteries have come a long way in the past ten years and the thing works great. It is lightweight, super easy to use and has way more power than I would have thought possible.
I am no expert at felling trees since I would much rather hug them, but Ash trees are in serious danger from the Emerald Ash Borer and leaving damaged Ash trees standing is an open invitation to invasion. Most loggers are rushing around trying to cut down all the healthy Ash trees so they can get whatever money they can out of them before the dreaded Ash Borer gets here. That is a mindset that makes me crazy. In every population there will be individuals that are resistant to any plague and it is these individuals that will rebuild the population and come back stronger than before. However, killing them all off before they even have a chance to resist the plague is a great way to ensure extinction.
Anyway.......I didn't want to leave this damaged tree and I really wanted it to fall in the pasture instead of over the stone wall. Of course, this was the opposite way that gravity wanted it to fall so I had to get a bit creative to convince it to go where I wanted it. I cut through the tree until I started to feel scared that it would fall on top of me and then I got the Handy Man and a long rope to help...
I may not know much about the finer points of tree felling, but I do have a pretty good grasp of the effects of gravity and what might happen if I was standing underneath a tree when gravity got the better of it. A long rope and the ATV helped me overcome that little bit of physics and put the tree down where I wanted it - all with me at a nice safe distance.
The little herd tree killers were ecstatic....
After 24 hours they had it cleaned up enough for me to cut the trunk into firewood.
Within 3 days, they had stripped it bare. By the time I get around to picking up whatever is left, there will only be a few bare branches. Around here the Ash Borers have suspiciously long ears.
They wiped out all the leaves. That's a good clean up crew.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post Kris! We need to cut up so many fallen branches and Joe's been cutting up what he can with clippers and piling the big pieces up.
ReplyDeleteAs for trees, have you read The Overstory? I recommend it to tree huggers especially but to anyone who loves a good story. It's about different people and the ways in which trees have changed their lives. Whatever one knows about trees, they'll see them a lot or a bit differently after reading it.
I love seeing your herd altogether!
Oh my goodness, I had no idea that donkeys would eat tree leaves, at least not to this extent. Rebecca2
ReplyDeleteI had no idea Donkeys were so fond of bark. Is it any tree bark, or specific species?
ReplyDeleteWow, they really did the job!
ReplyDeleteFamiliar pangs ... my donkeys started in on small fir trees in one of their paddocks. They have been here for 12 years on this property and never touched these trees. I blame climate change ... hot, dry, dusty - and even though to me, that sounds like perfect "donkey country" they seem to think differently!
ReplyDeleteSo I had to cut down 3 of the firs that they had ringed and then I got some hardware cloth and wrapped the other saplings. The ones we dropped got stripped tip to trunk in no time!
The Emerald Ash Borer has decimated our ash tree population. I did love those grand tall trees we had. However they are barren now and will fall on the fence.
ReplyDeleteI had bulldozer man push two of them over that would have fallen on the shed this winter. However my wonderful neighbor burns wood, so all is good and those dead trees will be put to good use.
:0 Your fellas sure can take care of leaves! :)
ReplyDelete