Can't see the wood for the trees

While out for a morning ride, Angie came across the forester who said the harvester woud be arriving at midday and would start by working it's way down to us.

Sure enough it arrived and within a short time had dealt with most of the trees. Normally they work very quickly when felling a normal section but as ours had so many uprooted and "hanging" trees, the driver had to work his way around lots of obstacles. Finally he had two large trees which threatened the house if they fell the wrong way. In the one case he had to try and get the tree upright again [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/pferdeschorschi/16930993390/in/photostream/](Flickr video)[/url]. The other one was more difficult but luckily at that moment the forester and the owner of the harvester company turned up. After long debate, the harvester owner took to a chainsaw and wedges while the harvester driver held the tree high up and kept it under tension to fall away from the house. On this video you can see It worked and how the forester, his dackel and Angie fled out the way first.

We also got our large deciduous trees on the edge decapitated, so now there is no more danger to the house on that side.

I set to work with my trusty small nearly 20 year old Stihl chainsaw cutting up logs and clearing the decbris. Later on I heard a strange noise coming from the saw innards. The motor ran but on starting one could hear something sounding like broken off plastic parts being churned around. After a short time I thought it best to stop as there may just be a chance of repairing it, despite it's age and the misuse I put it through. It has one of the weakest horsepower meant just for debranching and light work and  has a 30cm (12") blade - I regularly cut logs with 40 to 50cm (16-20").

Carried on clearing up branches until it got dark. Then on the internet to see what a new saw costs.