The weather here has been stormy, though our neighborhood was spared the worst of it. Our gulch is about 400 feet long where it crosses the compound, with sheer sides in places and 25-30’ deep (or deeper; I have yet to measure all the way to the bottom). It is surrounded by wild mist forest and has a real jungle vibe. Some of the trees around it are at least 50’ tall.
Over the summer, HA (with the help of some hires) thinned out some of the forest near the house, and cut a path so that we could easily transport our prodigious amounts of green waste to the gulch for disposal. I was dubious about trying to penetrate the jungle, but I have to admit that it looks a lot better and it’s fun being able to see into the gulch from our deck and hot tub.
A couple of days ago, HA and I were out in the pavilion when we heard a big, extended crash. The top dozen or so feet of one of the trees had broken off and crashed through the canopy onto the ground. Naturally, it — and the huge amounts of jungle canopy it brought with it — landed on the cleared path. So today I undertook to re-establish the path.
I failed to take any before pictures, but here’s looking up from the gulch toward the garage after I’d sawed the tree into firewood and carted it up to the shed.
And here’s what it looks like from our front lawn, looking down the now-cleared path to the gulch and surrounding jungle.
The hero of this story is the E-GO electric chainsaw. It’s heavier than an equivalent gas chainsaw, but it’s ready with the squeeze of a trigger (no starting a gasoline engine) and so much quieter. It was a joy to use. I was worried that it wasn’t fully charged when I started, but it had enough charge to do the whole job. (Okay, I was actually hoping it would run out of power so I could take a break while it charged, but I was thwarted by modern battery technology.)
About 90 minutes after I’d finished, I was sitting at my desk and heard a great *crack* and another branch crashing through leaves. Of course, I was convinced that my path would be blocked again, but it was actually in a different, denser part of the jungle. When I went to check, though, the clouds that give the cloud forest its name rolled in.
—2p