The stormy winds have finally tapered off from highs of 107 kilometers per hour. As we walk around the farm, ascertaining the extent of the damage, It is not nearly as bad as my anticipation. A tall ratoncillo tree behind the house, that once stood upright nearly 15 meters tall, it's bright green leaf tips tickling the blue sky, now leans precariously toward the greenhouse adjacent to the house. It remains too wet to climb and prune, so I get the tall ladder, climb up and wrap a chain around a fork in the main trunk. The other end of the chain we wrap around a larger tree behind the ratoncillo; a second chain is attached to an anona tree to pull the ratoncillo to the left sharply should it's roots fail before we can prune. We think this should hold until dry weather arrives in a few days.
A strong winterstorm in the northeastern US is the cause of the high winds here and another such storm front is expected for next week. All we need is one dry day and we should be able to get the dangers removed. Walking down the hill I notice that the dry laurel negro tree, which has been dead for years, has lost many branches on to the coffee planted around it on the slope. As one of us heads back up to get the chain saw, rope and the extension ladder, the other inspects the tree.
The surface is dry; the tree is shaded to the north by a tall windbreak, so we decide we will attempt to climb it and see if we can remove any hanging branches. The tree is somewhat slippery from the moss it wears, but we manage to get up the trunk and my assistant suggests that it is too dangerous to use the chain saw. As he is the one up in the fork of the tree, I figure he should decide how the cutting should be done. He decides to use his machete, despite the tree being a hardwood tree. The long period of standing dry in the tropical sun has cured the wood and the machete sings with each cut, small chips of wood falling to the ground. I stand below, in the coffee rows, holding the rope that will guide the cut branches safely to the ground where I can chop them up with my blade.
In all, the job takes about 2 hours. Considering that all the cutting has been with machete, it is a "quick job". Now the work shifts to cutting with the chain saw, but we can't cut the main trunk without crushing the 3 year old coffee plants that are flowering nearby. So we set about sawing all the fallen branches, stacking the logs into cords of firewood. The trunk of the tree is excellent lumber for cabinetry and furniture making, but we need to get it down in one piece to benefit. We decide this is a job for another day.
A strong winterstorm in the northeastern US is the cause of the high winds here and another such storm front is expected for next week. All we need is one dry day and we should be able to get the dangers removed. Walking down the hill I notice that the dry laurel negro tree, which has been dead for years, has lost many branches on to the coffee planted around it on the slope. As one of us heads back up to get the chain saw, rope and the extension ladder, the other inspects the tree.
The surface is dry; the tree is shaded to the north by a tall windbreak, so we decide we will attempt to climb it and see if we can remove any hanging branches. The tree is somewhat slippery from the moss it wears, but we manage to get up the trunk and my assistant suggests that it is too dangerous to use the chain saw. As he is the one up in the fork of the tree, I figure he should decide how the cutting should be done. He decides to use his machete, despite the tree being a hardwood tree. The long period of standing dry in the tropical sun has cured the wood and the machete sings with each cut, small chips of wood falling to the ground. I stand below, in the coffee rows, holding the rope that will guide the cut branches safely to the ground where I can chop them up with my blade.
In all, the job takes about 2 hours. Considering that all the cutting has been with machete, it is a "quick job". Now the work shifts to cutting with the chain saw, but we can't cut the main trunk without crushing the 3 year old coffee plants that are flowering nearby. So we set about sawing all the fallen branches, stacking the logs into cords of firewood. The trunk of the tree is excellent lumber for cabinetry and furniture making, but we need to get it down in one piece to benefit. We decide this is a job for another day.
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