Confessions of a Tree Hugger – I Love them to Pieces…
Wow I tell you what I could really feel That tree's energy speak to me It's like it has its own voice that I Could hear it I love trees so much I love the beauty Of them I love nature it's why we bought This big property that's surrounded by So much untouched Woods there's a Hundred acres around us of untouched Woods and I just love trees each one of them is Unique and different I love the shade They provide I love their strength which Is remarkable If you've ever tried to remove a tree Stump you'll know what I'm talking about And the fact that they can weather Storms the way they do I love that They're a habitat for all types of Animals and Wildlife I love Trees I love the bark and the leaves I Love the way the wood smells when you Plane it I love the way it pops and Crackles over a fire I love splitting it I love cutting it I love the cracking noise that the hinge Makes when it breaks I love trees Probably more than you do and I I'm Gonna use this video to tell you and Show you what I'm talking about Today I'm gonna cut down this tree and Then tomorrow we're going to cut it into Lumber on a bandsaw mill
I took this angle back here to try to Catch you know the full magnitude of the Tree Every time I cut one down I try to have An appreciation for how long it took to Grow And just the sheer weight of the tree And the danger involved And never take it for granted [Music] Today I'm going to briefly touch on Deforestation and environmentalism and How these trees produce the oxygen that We need and how they provide a habitat For the animals in the area but I'm Mainly going to do that by telling the Story of a few specific trees that I've Cut down and the lessons I've learned From that maybe by the end of the video You'll appreciate my love for trees the Lesson I learned on this particular day Dealing with this big beautiful pin oak Is the amount of work it takes to make Lumber from a tree Foreign [Music] [Music] The main butt log that we got out of This tree weighed about four thousand Pounds and just getting it to the middle Was a heck of a chore I got slab wood that I turned into some Firewood out of the outside pieces I Also got a ton of one buys that had Live
Edge on them but the primary yield from This main log was 10 2 by 12 boards 12 Feet long I could have went to the Lumber yard and bought 10 2x12s but it Wouldn't have been beautiful Oak Hardwood like this and it wouldn't have Been cheap and the bottom line is Whether I cut the tree down Or it's a tree that was grown to be cut Down it's killing a tree now there are Some parts of this conversation that are Debatable and you can make Fair points On either side but one thing that is Just a fact is our society needs wood From trees to function in The Way We Know It now the pin oak that I chose to Cut down To saw this Lumber out of and the walnut Tree that you see right now were cut for No other sin than being in my way that Day and honestly the walnut tree was cut Because I wanted some Walnut Lumber I Got nice Lumber out of this but I almost Wish I would have left it now the Debatable part is which trees we choose But I want to finish telling the story Of this tree first [Applause] [Music] [Music] Just because we cut this tree down and Sawed it into Lumber doesn't mean we can Use it right now You can use it in certain circumstances
As green would but in most cases you Need to dry it out which can take a long Time So I started off drying this outside And stacking it there then I moved it And stacked it in the Quonset hut and Then finally I got the opportunity to Dry my lumber in a climate controlled Workshop a year later this Lumber is Completely dry to five percent moisture Like you would get from Kiln dried Lumber but that didn't take care of the Tree one parallel you can draw is Killing animals for meat I would guess That most of us don't approve of killing Animals and just leaving them to rot but If Society needs it for food that's a Different story and I would say me Cutting these Field trees down instead Of buying from the lumber yard is Comparable to hunting rather than just Going to the grocery store and the Native American cultures used every Single piece of any animal that they Killed and I think the best thing is to Do the same thing with a tree you cut Down I've already used some of this Lumber you see but what's left is going To be the bed of a hay wagon so it's Getting a second life that way [Music] So a few months after cutting this down I came back to deal with the rest of the Trunk that I didn't saw into Lumber and
That is firewood and it also involves a Lot of work I know I'm spending quite a Bit of time in the Nitty Gritty but all Of this has a point that I'd really like You to hear Foreign [Music] [Music] At that point all of the logs get split Into rounds and anything that is small Enough I can pick it up or even move it Is split on this Champion 27 ton Splitter And stuff that is too big for that gets Handled by The Wolf Ridge on the skid loader Foreign [Music] So now all the big stuff's gone but we Still have a lot of smaller Limbs and Branches that need to be dealt with and Those aren't just a nuisance they can Serve a purpose as well Foreign Foreign You might have noticed my grandson Helping me in a couple of clips and here He is again helping me spread all this Wood mulch around the Christmas trees We're planting If you aren't aware we've planted 750 Christmas trees in the last year And we're hoping to open our own Christmas tree farm but that's a long
Venture that takes a lot of time and a Lot of work But hopefully it's all worth it in the End And sometimes being worth it is more About the journey than the end goal [Applause] [Music] And obviously after the rest of the tree Is disposed of you still have a tree Stump that has to be dealt with and I Actually want to grow other things in This spot so I need this stump Completely gone so first I ground it out Now I'm trying to use salt as a natural Way to get the stump to rot itself out So I've drilled holes in it salted it And then cover it up with some horse Manure and we're going to see if we can Get this thing to Decay quickly Everything you've seen to this point is The cleanup associated with one tree Being cut down now you're seeing a meme That shows part of how I feel about this People who live in places that look like That should not tell people who live in Places that look like this how to take Care of the environment now that's not To say that we should ever be so Arrogant that we can't learn or get Ideas from people no matter where They're from but there's some truth in That meme [Music]
Foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] Foreign Log still But if you look at the top half of the Tree being dead my question is how long Would it be before that wasn't a healthy Log Probably maybe a couple years But bigger than that When you talk about should I take that Tree or leave it It's no longer growing It's not rotten but it's not growing and If it's not growing it's not producing Much oxygen These young healthy trees that are Shooting up all over the place those are The ones we want to save and that's kind Of what this video is about So what I've shown you to this point is Primarily that every time I cut down a Tree I have A tremendous amount of work to do Because I don't ever just cut a tree Down take one log and leave the rest it May sit for a month or two but I come Back and I clean up every bit of every Tree Now why is that relevant to this Conversation
It's relevant because I get a lot of Comments saying that I'm harming the environment when I cut Down a tree But if I really tried to cause Deforestation and just spend all my time Trying to cut down all these trees and Process them How many could I really do in a year This is not all I do I'm not a full-time Blogger or anything like that I would say The most I could possibly do in a year Is 50. one per week Now I looked up the numbers and every Single day there are 42 million trees Cut down That is not a typo I didn't say it wrong People tried to correct me that's 42 Million per year it's not 42 million Trees are cut down every day which Accounts for 15 billion trees are cut Down every year Now if I set a goal to see if I could Add to that I estimate I could do 50. So that's part of the conversation [Music] [Music] So I've been talking about this being Very personal to me and this walnut tree Really demonstrates that as well Because there's something else I haven't Mentioned and that is cutting down trees
Is really dangerous You're taking a serious personal risk And I made a mistake on this tree that Made it much more dangerous And I've got a couple videos showing the Mistakes I made here And it primarily had to do with the way I handled the hinge Foreign [Music] Foreign This is the walnut tree that you saw Split on me just a minute ago And now I've turned it into a baby swing that my Granddaughter really enjoys it's gonna Be sturdy I think it looks nice I'm Always proud when I'm able to use lumber From a tree that I cut down myself to Make one of these projects Foreign [Music] So as I bore cut this big oak tree I Want to recap a couple things Number one I'm doing something really Dangerous because I have a love for the Process and the result Number two I utilize everything that I can out of The tree Number three I cannot affect The environment with the amount of trees I'm able to cut number four these mature
Trees that are past their Prime in terms Of the overall life of a tree Are not producing as much oxygen and Being a good Steward of the land means I Need to thin those out So that new trees can take their place I would say all of us should be Continually looking to improve ourselves To be better and to do better and part Of that is choosing as many trees as Possible that are at the end of their Life but ultimately trees are a crop That have their time to grow and their Time to be harvested Foreign So what is the point of this My point is that the tree huggers are Focusing their energy on the wrong People if you're coming on my video mad At me for cutting down one tree You're missing the picture I love trees Probably more than you do I appreciate you taking time to watch This video put links on the screen to a Couple more of our videos I'll see you Next time
