Today was a recovery day

This is the largest Black Locust I cut this weekend with a 14" diameter at the butt.

It is still a little bit hung up. It is 12" off the ground 9' from the butt-end and 40" off the ground at 17' and 7' at 25'.

The plan is to wedge a chunk of log between the log and the ground at the 9' mark and to make an "X" cradle at the 17' mark, then to make the cuts. By supporting the log where I am making the cuts I probably will not bind the chain nor will I have the risk of a huge release of potential energy.

The White Pine I cut also got hung-up, but that is because the stems were close together. The stump is circled in light blue. You can see that I had to "skate" the log a good 12' before it decided to drop.

 

Another White Pine. I am "release cutting" so the better trees will have less competition.

You may be wondering what marvel of modern technology I used to drag those logs 12' over the soft soil.

The answer is that I used an  8' fence post as a pry bar and I used the yellow-handled mattock shown in the middle image as an anchor to keep the other end of the fence-post from skating across the slippery needles.

Every couple of feet I had to use the mattock to clear the needles and dirt that the cut-end of the log was pushing like a dozer-blade.

If you are going to be low-tech, you better be strong and have a high tolerance for sore muscles.