Dear Cutters for Christ Team Members and RUMC Disaster Relief Correspondence Listing Members,

 

We fielded a team of 8 participants today for our final Cutters for Christ coalition team workday at Camp Sumatanga in Gallant, Alabama.  From left to right our team was made up of Ray Miller, Bob Thompson, Boyd Martin, Hunt Cleveland, Buddy Williams, Dan Bedore and John Calhoun; Not pictured: Bob Suellentrop.

 

I'm sorry to report that my video camera malfunctioned - in the on/off world of computer lingo it was most probably an I/O (inept operator - me) issue - and so I do NOT have ANY video whatsoever of the big pine coming down, which was our first assignment of the day.  Here are some still images, nevertheless.  It was my first use of our new Stihl MS461 77cc chainsaw - which we were able to acquire this past spring thanks in great part to the generous donation we received from the Riverchase United Methodist Mens organization in recognition of our RUMC Disaster Response Ministry involvements.  We equipped it today with its 28-inch bar (Jim Pressler had used it the two times we were at camp in the past two weeks but with the 25-inch bar on it) and I must say it stepped right up to the job.  I'm just so disappointed we couldn't capture the felling on video for you all to see.  Yes, a tree of that size does make loud noises as it crashes through the surrounding trees coming down and a really exciting "wump" when it finally impacts the ground!

Using our chainsaw certification course training and some additional practical woodsman hints from Buddy, we felled it exactly where we designed it to fall.  Once it was down on the ground we measured the trunk to be 76 feet from the base to the start of the branches and 110 feet to the top of the foliage.  The diameter was 29 inches at our cut point and someone counted 65 tree rings, more or less.  It was a great team effort from everyone: from those clearing away smaller trees from the path where the tree would fall, to the still photographer of the event, to the engineers planning the locations and angles of my cuts, to the shoulder tapper and sledgehammer wielder who wedged my tree cuts at the appropriate time and who let me know when the tree began to fall and it was time for me to move away and let gravity do its job!

The remainder of our day was spent at the ropes course.  Unfortunately for us old guys, we had to park at the street and walk up a washed out mountainside access road - and I do mean walk UP - almost a half mile to the job site, lugging all our gear, tools and accessories with us up the trail and then back down again at the end of the day.  At the ropes course we felled 10-12 trees, both pines and hardwoods, that the camp staff had flagged for us as being the ones they particularly wanted taken down.  Another great effort was undertaken when felling a red oak tree there which Buddy navigated to bring down beside a small building standing only three away, but not a single twig ever touched the structure.

 

Camp provided us with a great lunch consisting of a side salad, homemade vegetable soup (the best!), our choice of grilled pimento cheese sandwich or chicken salad on a hoagy bun, cole slaw, pasta salad, the choice of a brownie or banana pudding for dessert and an array of beverage choices.  Thank you camp staff for nourishing us!  We WILL work for food!

We trekked back to the ropes course to finish the day's assignments and having taken down all the trees the staff had tped for us, we departed for the ride back to Birmingham somewhere around 3 PM.

Some of you have asked about the new Nina Reeves Chapel that has been built to replace the structure that was demolished by the trees that crashed through it last spring and which we were called upon to buck (cut up in sections) remove.  Here are pictures of then (the chapel is buried under the downed trees up toward the foliage ends of them) and now.  The replacement chapel is very nice and it looks like the interior is all but finished except for the clean up.

 

We're down and on the side now until a natural disaster hits or someone calls needing the services we can provide.  Don't forget the UMCOR ERT recertification course this Saturday at Vestavia Hills UMC - the contact person is Denise Williams at dwilliams@vhumc.org - and the full UMCOR ERT certification course that will be held in October, the date of which I'll tell you as soon as Denise tells me.

In His Service,
Bob