Exhausting is one thing. A very valid thing I might add.
What gets me the most, however, is the death factor.
Chopping down a mature tree with an axe -talking maybe 20 inches here- can be very very dangerous. It is a lot harder to control the fall with an axe than it is with a saw kerf and wedges. Add to that that I don't have a whole lot of experience felling with axes. When cutting down a 55 inch or so tree, it seems like it is just not worth the risk.
Add to that that in order to fell a tree with an axe, you need to cut a higher stump than you would do with a saw, where you can cut the tree off right at the ground. I need to squeeze every inch of length out of these that I can get, because in some cases I am afraid the top several feet may be significantly damaged and split since they were in fact killed by a tornado.
As Tim pointed out, some times we do have to pull out the modern card. We have to draw a line somewhere. Here, the line is drawn for 2 reasons. Sawing the tree with a chainsaw will be dangerous enough, and these trees are not worth my life. Log length is crucial, saving a foot of length or even more by using a chainsaw is definitely worth it.
But I may use my axe to remove the root flare around the base of the trees.. They are about twice as wide at the very bottom as they are at chest height.
After measuring the trees and doing some figuring and so forth, a couple of them will probably end up going to the mill for lumber. In particular there are 2 (at first I thought there was only 1, but after reviewing my pictures there are 2) trees with some degree of spiral grain. I can't get suitable riven timbers from these, so they are getting shipped off to the mill (Or, maybe, the mill is going to come to them)
That's all for now, guet nacht...
DLB
