Timber-r-r-r-r-r-r

The felling and cutting up of trees is now in full swing to produce all the timber we need to replace the walkway that runs through the middle of the Badjao village, built on stilts over the sea.

The sound of the farm animals has been replaced by the roar of a chainsaw and crash of falling trees. You can see me here working with Dong to cut down a total of about 60 trees over about a six week period. Because we have many children and animals here on the farm, we don’t want to cut all the trees in one go leaving mountains of wood and branches – which would also make it hard to move between then to prepare the wood.

So at the start of each week I fell around ten trees and remove all the branches. I have a chainsaw licence and relevant experience, so I am doing all the chainsaw work. Then the long trunks can be measured and marked for me to cut into the correct log lengths. 

After that, the clearing team (some of us from the team with some Badjao) chops up and tidies away all the branches and moves all the wood to its correct stacks... large wood, posts, wood for cooking on and compost etc. Every part of the tree can be used and is not wasted; what is not used for the Badjao project can be used on the farm or for cooking. 

Then we slice up the large wood into slabs and planks, much of which uses the chainsaw and takes the most time. It’s then ready to be treated and used on the Badjao bridge. Once the area has been cleared, I fell the next batch of trees and the process starts again.

Much of my time here on the farm at the moment is working on this project, other than when I’m helping care for the kids. It is tiring work, but very rewarding and I am enjoying it and know it is for a good purpose.