Dropped a big tree today. It was an old, dead Hemlock. I've been watching it for years, hoping it would lean and fall on its own where it wouldn't threaten anyone. But it was right over the road, which is really a right-of-way over my land and not a state maintained road. If it killed anybody, it was my responsibility. For a long time I hoped it might fall safely, though I always worried about it. Over the last few days, though, it began to look very dangerous.
So today -- after a VFD call in the morning -- I decided that it was time to take that responsibility. It seemed clear in its leaning and compression, but I had no idea what it was like on the inside. Once I started cutting, it might do anything. I took out the initial wedge where I wanted it to fall. In fact it almost fell after the felling cut, but instead settled back and collapsed it, becoming secure again. I made a second felling cut, three-quarters deep like the first one, and it still wouldn't fall. So now there were three very deep cuts were in it, and it seemed perfectly serene while also being totally unstable.
I put a rope on it, but my longest rope wasn't as tall as the tree. I wrapped that rope around an oak, and got the thing rocking just by pulling it myself. Still nothing.
Finally I brought my truck up, tied the rope to the hitch, and eased it taught. Then, in 4x4, I let it pull just a little more tension in the line until I heard and saw it break in the rearview mirror. Since I knew the rope was shorter than the tree, I punched the gas to break the rope and get out from under it. The thing fell exactly where I had been meaning to drop it seven hours earlier.
I sawed it into logs, and rolled them off the road and down the mountainside. My neighbor showed up for this last part, which was physically the hardest part though definitely the least dangerous.
My neighbor's wife had been there earlier, and she said that she'd noticed a couple days ago that it had gotten looking more dangerous. My neighbor himself said the same thing as we were moving the pieces, that it had really become clear that it was a danger. This evening the UPS driver showed up to pick up a package, and he remarked that he'd had his eye on that tree for a while, and had been worried about it for a long time.
Big, dead trees will kill you. Malory's knights fighting giants did no greater feat than we do when we take one of these things down.
16 comments:
First, you are a damned fool trying to drop a tree on your own. Hire a professional.
Second, in Ohio roads like this are township roads. They, too, are easements over private land, but the township maintains them. The easements are permanent, and are centered on property lines.
Back east, counties are mostly vestigial, and there are no townships. But Ohio has a well developed system of county and township governments, the residue of the Northwest Ordinance.
@sykes , I think there is a lot undeservedly unsaid about the NWO. In some ways it's the the beta version or attempt at a US constitution -- between the Articles of Confederation and the current Constitution. Would you like to describe other remnants of that structure you enjoy?
Your family and neighbors don't think you're a fool. They're glad you took care of business instead of hoping someone else would come along and do it.
We have mostly live oaks here. When I travel, it's striking how tall the trees are in the rest of the country. Live oaks tend to stay under 30 feet, so if they fall, it's rarely a big deal.
I've gotten to where I always put the rope on first when I'm felling a tree of any size, especially if it's compromised. I use a 3/4" nylon rope with a length of timber chain and a welder's come-along at the anchor point, and I pull a healthy tension on the rope after I make the initial felling cut. I've felled a lot of trees without doing this, mostly mid-sized ones and mostly for firewood (where you're too busy to mess with ropes), but I've come to consider it cheap insurance at minimal aggravation. Plus, I'm usually felling them alone. Our post oaks can get to be 2 ft in diameter, but they're not terribly tall, maybe 50-60 ft. A rope just about guarantees where it's going to land.
I no longer have to fell any trees, thank God. It is satisfying to see them go down, and the puzzle-solving around a difficult one, as you did, is nerve-wracking abut also a bit exhilarating. But dealing with it once its down is just work, and lots of it.
The worst I had was a large elm, which had grown all skewy, as they often do. It didn't want to fall where it was leaning (not hugely, but clearly leaning), even when cut pretty deep, and I shuddered to think where it might otherwise want to fall.
It is when you make the cut, and it does not fall, that many unsettling thoughts race through the brain. Been there. Wedges can work, but on a semi rotten tree they won't. They just compress the wood instead of enlarging the cut. I used to do a lot of this sort of thing, now I restrict falling to simple trees. Solid, not too big and not sprung.
Sounds like you did OK ( anything you can walk away from, right?) but a longer piece of heavy line and a block to turn it to get your truck out of the line of fire would be nice to have.
Besides, in the Code, it explicitly says a man cannot have too much rope. It is after the section on chainsaws and machine tools, before "Viking Burials".
Now I am worried. Have to go inventory the line..
First, you are a damned fool trying to drop a tree on your own. Hire a professional.
Well, I may be a fool and even a damnable one (though hopefully not a damned one), but I'm not accountable for my foolishness to anyone except my wife -- and she was wholly in favor of this project.
I do know a professional tree guy through the VFD. His life isn't any less important than mine, and he has a family too.
However: if you've been hanging around here and have come away with the thought that "Don't do it; it's dangerous; leave it to the professionals" is in line with the philosophy of this place, you've somehow missed something important.
I used to do a lot of this sort of thing, now I restrict falling to simple trees. Solid, not too big and not sprung.
Me too. I've felled quite a few dead trees in my wild youth, but I hadn't intended to fell another one. This one just got to the point that somebody had to do it, and it was properly my responsibility.
Sounds like you did OK ( anything you can walk away from, right?) but a longer piece of heavy line and a block to turn it...
Good advice. I took two pieces of line and tied them together, but it would have been better to have a longer line or even a steel cable. I just haven't made the expenditure because, well, I wasn't planning to do this any more.
a block to turn it...
Not sure how you'd anchor the block, or move it if it was massy enough not to need anchoring.
Or maybe a nearby tree that's big enough, but you can't count on those.
Eric Hines
"Not sure how you'd anchor the block, or move it if it was massy enough not to need anchoring.
"
You use your neighbors truck, of course! Heh.
In Robert Frost's "Two Tramps in Mud Time" he speaks of his desire to chop his own wood because he loves it, even though the two itinerant lumberjacks have some claim to be hired by him to do the job by right of need. He writes near the end
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight
My second son has the last line "For heaven and the future's sake" as an arm tattoo.
A few years ago we had two large bigleaf maples taken down- trunks about 3'-4' across. The tree guys piled the logs up in the front yard in a giant random stack and I cut them and split them all into firewood. It was summer, but I was working under the shade of another maple, so the heat was not bad. Actually, I enjoyed it, and especially the feeling I could still do it.
Thanks be to God for health.
I once saw someone fell a tree with the help of a bottle jack.
He used the tip of his
chainsaw to carve out the right sized void on the back side of the tree, inserted the jack, made the felling cut on the front side, and then simply extended the jack until the tree went over.
I don't know how safe it was, but it was certainly interesting.
Piercello
Clever, Piercello.
Raven, I still get to split plenty of wood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=3Kjox1VBq9c
Youtube example!
Piercello
I've seen that bottle jack trick on youtube before. This got me thinking that a pneumatic bottle jack and a decent length air line would allow you to do the last bit of jacking from a safe distance. Bonus is it would have other uses so be more justifiable a purchase.
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