Tractor Pulling in Earnest

Tractor Pulling in Earnest

A large Beech, one of the avenue of Beeches running down one side of the river here at Lethenty mill fell last year. It dammed the river collecting rubbish, branches even a traffic cone and the force of water when the river was in spate caused the bank to disintegrate on our side.

The tree would be more than 100 years old and if you want to count the rings here’s a pic Seriously though you could call this a windfall for a furniture maker and a matter for celebration but it’s not. It’s a big tree lying across the river that is difficult to remove and of  questionable value to us.  The  biggest  bit  is too  big for

conventional mills and the rest is too bent or knotty to be of much use. Even moving them would damage the grass nearer the Mill.

Anyway that’s the commercial way of looking at it; so the sections are still lying where they dropped on Saturday (26th April 2008) and I’ll have to put on my green hat to think up some way of using them while the wood is still fresh – Beech doesn’t lie for long before it gets stained and the rot sets in.

Dave Piercey drove the tractor and operated the winch, while Jamie Davidson wielded the chain saw. The job was done professionally and took about two and a half hours. The main picture on the home page of Wood-Mag shows Dave getting off the tractor to release the wire rope, having towed a section of the tree with his Fordson Major to level ground.

Another day – another windfall….. a beech has fallen further up-river, nearer the sluice and completely inaccessible !