Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Project by Travel Man #2 - Cutting a Coconut Tree

Amid the drizzles of afternoon rain (June 16, 2011), I decided to go to our old home's location at the center of our rice fields. My dog, Brownie followed suit. Cutting the coconut tree was far from my mind.

I was expecting to see fruits of our Indian mango trees, but to no avail; only one was still hanging on its branch.

Trying to control my irritation, I looked up the coconut tree to see if there's an old fruit. Nothing. I surveyed the next one. There were some left, but I knew it's been already looted with its young coconut by some farm helpers.

I cannot climb easily because the rain made its trunk slippery. So, my last recourse was to cut it down. That I did!

It's a sound decision to stop the thieves from harvesting fruits from it.

Armed with just a bolo, I don't have a chainsaw or rented one. With a silent prayer to accomplish it in just an hour, I started cutting it right-handed.

I whistled and sang fragments of songs that I knew while the rain drenched my raincoat. The cutting continued and my right hand began feeling the burden of too much force that I exerted.

After the first quarter (I kept checking on my wristwatch), I decided to use my left hand. I had to cut the other part of the trunk near its base. Not bad. Although, I was not a left-handed person, I pursued to swing to arm and there it was, the bolo's blade slowly chipped the bark of the coconut trunk.

I decided to document my project, as usual in order to prove that I can do it myself, amid the rain. It continued until I was almost at the core of the trunk.

I decided to rest for a while, taped some scenes then waited for the gravity to come in.

True enough, it did help me brought the trunk down. BAM!!!! There went the sound

Some farmers heard the sound and stopped momentarily as they looked at me from a distance. Well, it's my parents' property so, I don't mind them, although it hit a portion of the rice paddies of the adjacent farm.

What I did:

• I removed all the leaves.
• I gathered the young and old coconut fruits or shells.
• I cut the trunk near its tip.
• Last but not the least, I brought the coconut heart at home.

The farm thieves and looters will wonder who did it. Their guesses will not be far from the truth. That I knew what they did prior to my DIY project.

I've written a hub on the uses of coconut and enumerated some of it.

One of the recent remarks caught my attention about the use of young coconut leaves for native sticky rice delicacy. She's a local legislator in her province, who filed a bill banning vendors to use it. I don't know how to react, since, it's the practice in the entire archipelago of the Philippines. A poor alternate is banana leaf, although it's also used for other delicacy.

Coconut industry in the country is one of the major dollar earners, aside from labor deployment abroad. There are lots of job opportunities if the government will concentrate on its mass production and usage.

From roots to tip, coconut tree has unlimited uses. From the copra, chemical, soap making, cooking oil, butter, margarine, dextrose and other coconut products, this tree is dubbed as "the tree of life". True enough, it lives up to its name.

Coco lumber is the most available construction materials in the country. local agency on environment requires license for commercial production. There's a restriction that a coconut tree should be cut because:

1. it's already old (20-25 years old);
2. it's afflicted with coconut blight or parasite or insects that eat its young leaves causing it to die;
3. it's been affected by road widening;
4. the owner feels the need to cut it due to thieves or looters or for personal needs.