Today I had the oportunity to experience first hand casuariana harvesting. The wood is sourced locally from a shamba (a plot) that is 15 min away. We went with a whole crew of 4 fundis (skilled workers), and 3 kibaruas (workers) and Jonathan and I to find wood that was 3 and 4 inches thick. What we did is to walk around the forest and look up along the stem of the tree to see if it is crocked or straight. If straight we cut it down and source it for the project. Remember we are paying not per cubic meter of wood, but rather per inch of the thickness of the tree. Jonathan told me that if the trees grow too large they are hard to sell to the locals because their houses are not in need of wood that is much thicker than 3 or 4 inches - he says that sometimes what they will do is to source this wood for lumber (sawn food).
We also had to wait 2 hours for the truck to arrive - that was fun….not. Well at least the light was getting nice throughout the day as the sun was setting while we were sitting.
