Cutting a willow tree trunk

I've been working on cutting off part of the tree trunk on the left side. I am cutting halfway between where the power lines cross the photo and where the smaller branches come out of the trunk.

I started cutting Friday evening. A bit of a breeze blew in the afternoon so I waited till almost 7 pm when the wind died down. I cut for an hour. Until it got dark.

Saturday there was no wind so I spent the afternoon cutting the tree. Three hours in fact. Until my legs were too tired from standing and leaning in an awkward position in the tree. It also started to lightly sprinkle rain.

After waiting for the sprinkles to end, having a lunch, and riding my bicycle a few miles (my inner tube is now patched!), I went back up in the tree for another hour of cutting.

Why the cutting is going so slow is I am limited in my position for standing. I also want to cut the tree in a way to have it fall and miss the house, entryway, sidewalk, and me.

A chainsaw would be nice and a lot faster, but I can't operate one standing way up in the tree - even if I could lug it up there somehow. I have to use a handsaw. Yes, a regular saw.

Still, sometimes I was able to use the saw pictured here. Its bigger teeth cuts faster, but the saw is larger and more to handle. Also I don't want to get going too hard when cutting as I can then feel the whole tree trunk sway in reaction to the force of my sawing.

The tree trunk is so thick that the saw's blade gets bogged down. I had made two cuts slightly apart in order to create room for the saw's blade to move. Twice the cutting, twice the fun. That is why I am only a little over halfway through the tree trunk thought it feels like I cut through it twice.

When I took the first break I noticed that line of cutting on the left and right side of the trunk won't match up. *argh!* I started a new cut line on the left side. The cut lines look closer, though still not perfectly opposite from one another. I can only tell when standing on the ground as I can't see the backside of the tree trunk when in the tree.

The way I feel I think I'm going to sleep hard tonight.