Get Wood

Wood Blocks are priority one you figure. You can make charcoal out of them, and sticks, which between them make torches. Torches provide light, which in turn prevents monsters spawning inside your shelter.

You take your ax and start chopping trees, not really paying much attention to what kind they are, just that they will provide wood. However you are in for a surprise: when you take out the first block of the first tree (the second block up) the rest of it goes toppling over, the blocks shifting sideways in a rapid parabolic arc and the leaf blocks on the now downward side exploding like you had harvested them!

"Ooohhh-kaaaaay," you mutter, looking at the trunk of the oak tree now lying on the ground, "reminder to self, be extra careful where you stand when harvesting trees..."

Another fifty minutes of work (an hour total) and two blisters on your hands later you have cut down six trees, some oak, and some birch. You are quite pleased to discover that the birch trees not only yield wood, but also "Birch-Bark" but are distressed to note that none of the exploded leaves have yielded any apples or saplings...

SUGGESTIONS?