We got some work in the summer in Surrey felling a large oak tree that had sadly started moving. The roots on one side had been killed off by the traffic which squeezed past it on the skinny lane whos tarmac stretched right upto and partially around the oaks trunk.

The tree had grown with a significant lean away from the road, no doubt seeking light from where it grew under a bigger tree now long since gone. Due to lean and the condition of its roots great big cracks you could fit your hand into had opened up where the roots joined the trunk. The larger branches up in the crown had clearly died back decades ago and been cut back as the life drained out of them.

We spent a couple of days stripping off all the remaining side branches to minimise the damage it would do to surrounding trees at it fell then dropped it down. The tree lay on a reasonably steep slope and the landowner was happy for us to take the wood away at our leisure. December we borrowed a chainsaw mill setup from a friend and headed down to start the long task of milling up the large trunk

Its heavy, noisy, dusty work but its very rewarding to see the lovely slabs materialise.

A friend who lives on a smallholding in the area got us over to take down some ash trees that were heavily suffering from dieback disease. As we had the milling equipment with us we milled up the biggest trunk.