What to Do when a Tree Falls Down in Your Yard

Anyone who lives in a house probably has trees near that house. That means that almost any time of year, there is a possibility of a sizable tree falling down in your yard. Trees fall during heavy snows or ice storms. Trees fall during heavy showers or when there is lots of wind. Sometimes, trees just fall down for no apparent reason. But as long as that tree does not damage your home, and if you like having fires in your fireplace, you can consider the tree falling down as a little blessing!

The best thing to do once a tree falls is to go outside and have a look at it. Observe everything. Make sure everything is safe. Did the tree bring down other trees with it? Can you trim back some of the other trees and still let them live without cutting them down? Consider everything. Then assuming that you will not be calling a tree service, who will generally put your tree in their wood chipper, you will then need to gather equipment to cut up your tree.

If you are planning on this wood to be firewood, go ahead and decide on the place where the cut-up wood will be stacked for seasoning. Then gather up your tools. You will most likely need two people and maybe more, depending on the size of the tree and how fast you want your project completed. You will also need working gloves, a chainsaw, oil and gas for your chainsaw, maybe a spare chain and chain sharpener. You’ll also need a small ax, a larger ax, and possibly a metal wood wedge with a sledgehammer for splitting up logs into smaller pieces. Make sure you wear long pants, boots, and safety glasses when you are using a chain saw.

Now it is time to get to work on your tree! The easiest method is to start with the branches. Trim these off and make a pile of branches. Then, start at the shortest end of the tree and start cutting up the tree into smaller, fireplace-sized pieces. An ideal system is to have one person getting the cut logs out of the way, while the other person chain saws. This makes the job go a lot quicker. When you get to the largest part of the tree, just cut it into big round logs, and then later when you have time, you can split them up into individual pieces.

Staying organized will help you a great deal. When you are finished, you will probably have several piles–a pile of branches, a pile of medium sized branches that would also be good for firewood, a pile of stacked wood, and a group of larger logs to be split up later. Cutting up fallen trees gives you an excellent workout and also give you a real sense of accomplishment when you observe all the work you have done.

Lots of times, people will view a tree coming down in their yard as a bad thing. But this does not have to be the case! Cutting up wood can be fun, if you make it that way. And I would surely rather cut up wood that came down because of mother nature, because if I cut down a live tree, that would make me feel awful. If you like to have a fireplace fire during the winter, cutting up fallen trees many months before, can be quite rewarding, and also, gives the wood time to season. Then when the cold winter months come, you will be happy knowing that you are well prepared.