The buzzing of saws

Today the woodcutters finally came. I sat reading and realised I could hear a constant buzzing noise. Looking out of the window I saw a man up a tree at the bottom of the garden. It wasn’t clear what he was up to but I guessed by the noise of his saw. The lumberjacks or tree surgeons or whatver you choose to call them who were supposed to come last week had finally arrived. Branches were soon flying down from the trees. Neither was it clear how he was managing to balance up there. 

 

Looking out later, I saw that he and his assistant had made rapid progress. Whole trees had almost disappeared. There was really only one left by now.

One of the neighbours had come out to cheer them on. At least I assume that’s what he was doing. He certainly didn’t seem to be doing anything useful. Maybe he is one of those who will tell you, “I love work. I could watch it all day.” 

With fewer branches to worry about you could see better how the lumberjack managed not to fall out of the tree. He was attached to a kind of belt that went around the tree. He planted his feet (did his shoes have spikes, I wonder?) into or against the trunk and leant back into the belt. His saw was attached to his belt on a rope. In that way he could drop it after use while he adjusted the position of his safety harness without fear of knocking his mate out with the saw. Flying logs were a different matter. 

Gradually he worked his way down each tree trunk in turn, chopping chunks off as he went, until all that was left was a line of tallish trunks. 

And even these were cut right down in the end. All that remains is a line of stumps and a pile of sawdust. The vista is far from beautiful. Brick walls really do lack charm. 

Our son has protested that part of his childhood has been taken away. Our oldest granddaughter has yet to comment on it. And she is the one who really, truly resents change of any kind! A friend tried to console me with the thought if all the firewood we would get from these felled treed. Not a bit of it. They threw it all over the wall and then took it away in a great big trailer. 

So that’s that. The world is a bit plainer now.