the cut

When the trees are cut, you call in the mobile tree cutter. This is a machine someone has seen around, somewhere in the province. “I saw it at X primary school last October” says a researcher; “I’ll call them” – and the mobile tree cutter’s movements are traced and it is tracked down. It operates as a freelancer. It is ordered. I don’t know what it might be; it turns out to be this:


Unfortunately I could only get a photo of it on Sunday, so the cover is on the actual cutter; it came with a crew – 6 guys, and every time they started it up an extra 10 or so would drop around, obscuring my view.

Anyway, it doesn’t really matter; after slicing two tree trunks into planks, it broke down and was taken away. It is not coming back.

Each trunk was placed carefully on top of the steel frame; then the cutter was switched on (electronic circular blade/saw) and it was manually pushed forward, slicing in half whatever was in front.

The operator was good; he produced some nice planks. There was a lovely smell of sawdust in the air for a while; then it rained, and it smelt of glue.