Well, my wife just got home from taking our little guy to the Dr. She calls me up and asks why I told the power company to take a tree down in the front yard... Hmmm funny I hadn't told them to take any trees down. I had talked to the power company this fall when they where putting in a new service for the hog building across the road from me, the power company rep told me that they wouldn't be cutting down any tress, and none needed cut down. But all be if that tree isn't in a heap in my front ditch. So I call up the power company, the nice lady I talked to informed me that it is my "responsibility to clean up the brush" UMMM that's funny when they trimmed trees 2 years ago, the shredded anything I didn't want, and even hauled what I did want to my make shift wood yard. The guy in charge of this is to be calling me back today. Either way, I've got a good sized ash tree in my front ditch, happy to have the wood, but really mad that they didn't do it this fall when they where there putting in the new power pole, and I had equipment on site to clean up! That tree will go nicely with the two other big ash trees I'll be dropping with the excavator this spring and all the mulberry, cherry and scrub oak I've taken out of the fence rows this fall. What is not seen in this pic is the two 24"+ x 20' maple trunks I need to get cut down as well. Later~ Nathan
I'll take all the BTU's I can get. When we moved in here 3 years ago the guy in charge of pruning stopped by when I was working in the yard, had a nice chat with him and he offered to remove the 2 big maples (that are just trunks now) I took him up on the offer since he was going to leave the logs for me in my wood yard. Well as luck would have it, the trimming crew showed up one day at noon while my wife was home, they asked her about taking the trees down, she told them if they could save them she wanted them there.... ugggg... I get home that night with two trees that looked like they where out of a Dr. Seuss book, with two big limbs on each tree hanging over the house.... I was a little upset when my wife (8 months pregnant at the time) told me what happened, but kept it to my self until l=the next summer she started complaining about the way the trees looked! I was able to get a 60' JLG man basket from a job site one weekend and got the trees down to where they wouldn't fall on the hose, but still looked dumb. This summer I took the last of the limbs off and left the trunks until the ground froze (I think it would be safe now). Lesson learned, make sure to tell the wife that loves shade trees when you tell the power company to take some trees down! Nathan
Interesting that they dropped it out of the blue and want you to clean it up But, looks like lots of good firewood My neighbor has a magnolia that's shaped like an L now. Power company carved out a square chunk around the line a few years ago
looks like there's a tree up against the fence butchered up pretty bad. little red safe-dig flags for digging a trench ? seems like a odd way for the power co to cut up and leave a tree. Course here you'd have to sign a contract for permission to cut it down and remove or leave it. Even on their right of way. They can trim all they want they just can't remove a whole tree. It's the property of the property owner. Power co only trims around the power wires, the phone and cable co have to do their own. Nutso rules but historical societies have paid the big bucks to make and see the rules are enforced.
I think I'll end up taking the butchered up tree out as well. I got home at sunset last night so couldn't snap any more pics, but the ash they took down was 38" at the stump. They left a complete mess, not like the trimming contractor before. Another thing I'm not happy about is they backed there bucket truck right over my LP supply line, wonder if they will send out someone to do a leak check? (I don't buy LP from them) I don't know how they think the average home owner could handle a tree of this size, or a mess like that in single digit temps!?! ~Nathan
Which ever one I borrowed I would hook up the grapple bucket, I wish I had a grapple bucket for mine.
The tree that's in a heap has been pruned before. It's full of water sprouts. Kinda looks like some linesman foreman put that tree on a list with a contractor to be removed and the contractor decided he was more of an arborist expert and nixed it. It's now no longer on his list. I'd grab the firewood quick and see if a crew comes later to chew up the branches.
Here is another view... The guy in charge from the power company stopped by after I took off for a job site visit. Since the misses is home with our little guy today, she was able to talk to him face to face. He apologized up and down for the mess, and for not getting ahold of me before all this took place. He went over what him and I had talked over yesterday on the phone... That I want everything that can be CSS'ed and the twigs and such can go in the chipper. He explained that there was a communication break down yesterday between the trimming crew and him, they had called left him a message to call me since no one was home when they got there, evidently they didn't wait and dropped the tree, and trimmed two more, leaving everything on the ground moving on to the next place on the list. He took blame saying that since this was needing to be done, he had told the crew to get mine, and a few others done before more snow fell, or ground started to thaw. They took that as drop and go orders, no clean up. He assured my wife the crew would be back the first part of next week, and would have everything we do not want cleaned up, and that they would not be driving in the yard (and over my LP supply line) any more. he left his card and told her to have me call him if I had any questions or concerns. I may be pushing my luck, but I might see if they would spring to have a stump grinder come in and remove the stump for me. ~Nathan
A grapple is AWESOME one tip... get a good one, FIL has a Blockbuster grapple, it is nice, but not nearly has heavy duty as it should be... but hey I'll take it over chucking by hand any day! Nathan
Yeah.... funny thing to all of this... the power line is on my side of the road for only 1/2-3/4 of a mile, the rest to the 15 mile stretch on this highway is on the other side of the road... and in the stretch on my side, it goes over my yard, and has 6 trees that need to be trimmed because of it... along with 2 other newer houses and I'm thinking 5-6 more trees that will need to be trimmed (why anyone would plant a tree under a power line is beyond my thinking)... now on the other side of the road from me is a hog house, no trees at all, and the rest of the 1/2-3/4 mile is farm fields and road ditch, not even fence rows so no trees... I kindly pointed that out to the guy setting things up to put in the new service for across the road this fall... He noted that and admitted it would be in there best interest to move the line to the other side of the road, but went on to tell me how they gauge the life expectancy of the poles and when they need to be replace, and looking at mine, it would be a while before they get replaced. Well that is fine and good... but it's Iowa, we get storms and power lines get ripped down all the time. Wouldn't it just be my luck that in the next few years my line gets replaced and put on the other side of the road, and I will have lost 2 huge hard maples, an ash, and maybe one more sugar maple? ~Nathan Ohh... and I will get some pics of my new MS362CM-R getting into some wood over the weekend .... weather depending
Most definitely is does sound like the communication lines broke down there and glad they are coming back. One other thing that can happen is that even if a tree is in the road right-of-way, so long as it is not on the road, the land owner can stop them from cutting a tree and I have done that. There was a new foreman on the road crew and he had some big plans. When he came out there were 3 trees he wanted to remove. All white oak and all good sized ones. There was absolutely no reason to remove them and I said no. A neighbor also stopped them. He owns 1/4 mile frontage on one road and they intended to pave that road. Every landowner agreed and wanted it and they removed a lot of trees. However, that 1/4 mile they did not get permission and that stopped the paving of the road. Why? In our county, any time work is done now on a road, they want to grab the entire right-of-way even if it means moving a ditch. Of course that adds a lot to the cost and it is really not needed. We even pointed out to the road commission when they complained that the gravel was not lasting as long or was taking more than they usually use. Well duh!! You widen the road and wonder why it takes more gravel? Another time this same neighbor caught the power company out marking trees along the right-of-way of the power line. He found that the fellow had marked a tree that was not in the right-of-way and told them he did not want that tree removed (another big white oak). He said he'd change it so it did not get taken out. Whoops, it never got changed and suddenly said neighbor found his nice tree laying on its side. I believe he settled a little low but got somewhere around $750 or $800 for the tree and he got to keep it all. Wow. That would have paid my land tax for a year and more. So it pays to know what and what not you can do with these right-of-ways.
