Picking up where I last left off, I hire a local logger, George Rice, who loves to fell trees. He shows up with two huge Stihl chainsaws, a maul and several wedges and gets to work. The largest tree is tied to two others in one huge root-ball towering about 20′ tall on edge. The trick is knowing where to make the cut without pinching the bar (which is why George brought two saws). No mind–he has a logger’s intuition and adroitly separates each tree (in order) from it’s root and they flop back to terra firma with a huge thud–which I’m sure the USGS picked up on their seismographs.
After this seismic event, here is the uprighted stump and the log. My boardwalk is in shambles but the wiring from the hydro–which runs beneath the boardwalk— appears to still be intact. An uphill view to my watertower and generatorshed and….
….looking west towards the gazebo.
These three trees missed my 32′ high water tower by a mere 4 feet.
In this process–taking about 2 hours, produced ten 20′ logs each between two and three feet in diameter–good grist for the mill as they say. And I need some spruce lumber to complete my boat museum mezzanine. I’ve called about three or four nearby mills and no one has even returned a call. Perhaps they’re still texting on their iPhones? Not George.
Watch this one minute video to see how these roots return to there original place.
This is the largest log–we get three 20′ sections of it. I’ll need the RB–a landing craft that delivered my concert grand piano 15 years ago, to complete this mission–beaching in the salt-chuck nearby and slinging out each log. Trouble is, there are no mills left here in Petersburg who will answer their phones…..but I think I’ve mentioned that already.
Standing on the third 20′ section looking north to the saltchuck. The gazebo is on the beach line.
Another two trees were blown over just beyond. These root systems are very shallow–spreading out on polished glacier bedrock–like chess pieces on a board. They have a tenuous hold on our planet. On steep coastline slopes there are many new slides down mountainsides that are new–products of global warming, and supersaturated tropical storms. The steep Alaskan slopes cannot bear the weight. Here are two recent slides: the first in Haines which is over a mile long and 1/4 mile wide that took out 6 homes and killed two people.
Below is a second slide here in the Wrangell Narrows–a 15′ roar that outdid a fleet of 747 jets–fortunately no one lived under this one.
I live four miles north. These forests have been here for about 10,000 years, slowly taking purchase over polished granites after deposition of wind-blown loess deposits accrue. This depositional process takes thousands of years and thousands more for trees finally to adhere to these steep surfaces. My theory is that if the same processes today also existed back in the last post-glacial retreat, that one would see many of these scars. Most of what I saw this and last summer (including these huge blow-downs) are new. Two here in the Narrows within a decade and perhaps a dozen or more fresh ones enroute to Sitka.
One of the logs is only 60 years old (I’ve lived here 20 now). Spruce grows very fast, straight and is a very strong wood–suitable for ship’s masts and structural beams. also piano soundboards and violins. However, “tone-wood” takes a decade or more to season–like wine storage and the grain count must be old growth. This tree in particular has several hundred years to reach this maturity. Here is what spruce tone-wood looks like. The value is in the aging and in the select grain.
A happy ending to my logging experience here at the mythical South Kupreanof Yacht Club–my woodshed will soon be full. Lots of other winter projects are also getting done before the boats arrive. May and June are the best weather here boats begin to cruise by the house. During sunny breaks, my new solar panels now input over 3600 watts filling my new batteries in about two hours. I detail out a boat (and a birdhouse) that washed up on my beach crafting a new oar and oarlocks, rebuild some old deck-chairs, put in a modest garden and repair the hydro penstock–I’m ready for summer!
Stay tuned.