Peter had been asked to take down this rotting ash tree in a friend's garden recently. He worried about it for several weeks as it's a much bigger tree than he'd ever tackled before with his 16 inch chain saw. Last week saw the big day, and with a rope attached to the upper part of the tree and 4 willing helpers keeping tension on the rope, he set about taking it down. I was given the job of stopping the traffic on this little used farm track. As it was very close to telephone lines it was a nervous time to make sure the tree fell in towards the garden and not onto the road. That would have been an expensive job. As you can see, the tree was completely rotten inside and this made the job slightly quicker, although could have complicated things if the tree had decided to twist as it fell. Thankfully it was a win-win situation - the owners of the tree were happy to have their tree felled and Peter is happy to have some ash wood for burning or turning!
Aw such an elegant tree. What a shame. I hope it gets made into something nice rather than being cremated. I've got an ash in my garden actually which may end up going the same way.
I guess this was caused by something other than the ash dieback disease? A nice collage and a great story - but what a sad end for the tree. Let's hope Peter makes some lovely things from the wood!
@fueast, @janturnbull , I hope it gets made into something nice too. Yes, it's been rotten for about ten years so was becoming unsafe. @rosiekind I'm using Picasa again. @fueast They say the best burning is from an ash tree.
