I cannot tell a lie

[tigertoy]

... I chopped down the cherry tree with my little hatchet.

See, there was this wild cherry tree growing up at the corner of my garage that I really should have dealt with years ago, but I didn't.  It had grown through the fence and was really damaging it, so I finally decided to take some action.  This tree is plenty big enough that I need a chainsaw for it, but unfortunately, someone stole my chainsaw a few years ago, I never got around to replacing it, and I'm not going to buy one right now.  So I hacked off the large part of the tree that was through the fence with the bow saw, which was a bit of a pain but not that bad.  However, I wanted to cut it off at the ground so the remaining bits of it wouldn't grow back and get tangled in the garage and the fence, and between the fence and the garage, I didn't have room to bring the bow saw to bear.  So back to the dog lock where I keep the tools I go, and come back with my hatchet.  After what felt like an eternity of chop for 30 seconds in a painful crouch and then stand up and shake my protesting muscles for a couple of minutes, but probably was really less than an hour, I made it through the trunk.

My body hurts.

Comments

Hatchets, etc.

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

Louie had wanted me to deal with some very small trees outside before they became big enough to become a nuisance. For one of them, I got way down below the surface, only to find the root so rubbery that the hatchet bounced off more than it cut in; I eventually did get it cut off down there, but it took serious work. Later, I thought I was supposed to cut down a shrub that turned out to be a very pretty lilac bush; Louie did manage to stop me, though, before I did too much damage. And I am now under strict orders not to use the hatchet, as Louie doesn't feel (having watched me in process of doing it) that I am safe as far as my own hands and wrists are concerned. Oh, well -- it'll be easy enough for us to get a spare blade for the coping saw and to use that. And it's just one of those things that those of us who own, rather than rent, need to learn to deal with.

Nate

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

You're also going to need to drill into the top of the stump and pour in some kind of stump-killer chemical. I forget what the brand names are now, but if you ask an old guy at the local hardware store he'll know what you need.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Cutting a gap in the layer under the bark all the way around will kill the tree, but where this tree was located I couldn't reach all the way around, at least not with any tool I have that would stand up to cutting a tree.