Mr. B Natural: Roppongi

First thing I did was do make sure I had my hammer and wedges with me. Also I went over various videos about how to fell trees against their lean. Almost all of them used ropes and wires to pull, rather than wedges. But I found one video which kind of showed how wedges are supposed to work, which did not give me any confidence at all. According to it I would need a much bigger wedge than the ones I had.

Anyway, while thinking about what to do, I started with the small tree by chopping away another piece off its bottom, and then another. That had the effect of making the tree start leaning to the north as its top was stuck in the branches above. So after I chopped a bit more from its bottom, its weight finally released it from those branches and it fell to north. But not all the way... again.

stuck again

I cut away a couple meters from its bottom, and then used my own weight to shake it loose. It was barely enough, but worked. The tree was finally down, and I cleaned it away.

Now, ready or not, it was time to deal with the problem. A big tree, leaning in the wrong direction. I checked and if I let it fall anywhere to south, it would definitely get stuck in some sugis in that plot. Also trying to make it to fall to eat or west would not work cause I was leaving 1 big sugi in my plot and it would definitely get caught it that one with its branches, and I would have to cut both down, with unknown and maybe dangerous consequences if they fell like a domino.

So my only option was to fell it toward north. The exact opposite of its natural lean. Almost reluctant I made the face cut low to the north, and also not very deep into the wood. Then took a break to watch the wedge video one more time just in case I had missed anything.

Then I cut in the back very carefully only in the middle and just wide enough to fit in the wedge. And then I put in the wedge as deep as it went. And then I inserted the other wedge next to it by cutting a smaller hole in the back. I was going to use both wedges in tandem. My problem was that both wedges were too small, and one of them was really too small....so I would definitely need both plus a lot of skill and luck.

Wedges in

After that, I made the back cuts starting in the middle and going back. I wanted to leave a strip over which I would force the tree to fall. I was super nervous and almost shaking but finally determined. I took many many breaks to check the tree, to check the cuts and how they were aligned, to switch side on where I was cutting and to hammer in the wedges more and more.

The tree did not seem to move at all. Every now and then I would hear a tiny crack when hammering a wedge but that was pretty much it. I used all my force when hammering the wedges, and finally the smaller of the wedges was all the way in, and still no sign of the tree changing direction.

So I kept going, cutting a bit more and wedging more. Then I noticed that although I had taken big care to just cut deep enough into the wood to meet the wedges, there was a strip of wood untouched between the wedges, perpendicular to the "falling strip" which I intended to leave. Meaning that the tree was held up by a "T" instead of a "--" if seen from south side. I had to get rid of the "T"'s vertical line, i.e. its "I".

I couldn't afford to hesitate so I went on to cut in between the wedges. It was pretty narrow and I had to touch the smaller wedge with the chainsaw from time to time to get through so that wedge got pretty fucked up, but still in there doing its job. After some of the vertical line was gone, I hammered in almost all of the bigger wedge too, and could hear more cracks every time I did. I made the "--" strip thinner a little at a time and hammered more wedge in and finally the big wedge was all the way in too, and right then I heard the extremely satisfying sound of the tree changing direction and slowly falling over its weight. A very very heavy thud later and the tree was down, perfectly to the north where I wanted it.

The wedge is still stuck in there

It was suck a huge feeling of joy and accomplishment to manage felling the seemingly impossible tree against its lean so perfectly. And I did it so closely and with such narrow margins... I mean for example if the wedge was just a centimeter smaller I would have failed.

I still cannot believe I did it afterwards. It feels extremely lucky the more I think about it. Anyway I was proudly walking on clouds the rest of the day.

The wall is getting longer

Rest of my time I am using to haul over logs and build the north wall. After that I will clean up a path for a backhoe to get in and start digging and preparing the ground along the wall.

There is a lot of cleaning left with all the sugis and their branches lying around. But it is cleaner than before in a way.