Was out in my woods today getting kindling and came across the queen of all widow makers. This would have hurt to say the least. Didnt even knock it over to see how far it embedded in the ground but its a huge one. Maybe 9-11ft tall with a hefty diameter. Not even sure what type of tree it is. Anyways figured everyone might have some decent widow makers of there own so lets see them!
Ill tell ya what I had one like that a couple years ago land 20 ft from me I almost peed myself! I dropped the saw running and ran like I had a pack of wolves behind me.... It took 40 minutes to move everything to get my CS310 out of the mess and find all my manhood again. I roped the section in the ground as I am not the only one who cuts there and pulled it down along with half the old maple. What a messy day. I wish I had a pic but my head was all about getting outta there.
You reminded me of a big ash I have along my main trail. Sorry, I don't have a pic of it yet... it's loaded with woody peckerhead holes from the base to about 30' up. It's so bad I always watch it if I'm within it's fall area. I really don't want to try and bring it down, nor do I want my sons to "get interested" in it either. Actually thought about rigging some sort of saw holder that would let me make cuts while standing waaaaay the h*ll out of it's path. I'll get pics of it sometime.
I have a monster widow maker behind the house. I need to get a picture of it. The limb hanging is the size of a tree about 50' up.
I made this one yesterday. Completely screwed up cutting the hinge and almost pinched the saw. Then when it did drop it got hung up.
Be careful with that one trktrd. By the looks of it the tree to the left in the picture has a lot of stored energy that it could release to move your hanging tree as you try to free it.
It's come down a bit further since the other day. There are 2 more small trees besides that one that it's hung up in. If you look down the oak I cut they are in the form of an X. It can sit there til my buddy the "expert" comes home next week. I'm too old to get killed by a tree.
Since all the rain we got, that tree finally made it to the ground. The reason it went the wrong way was the stump was so rotten that it let loose before I was done cutting and twisted off in it's own direction. Got sunshine today so gonna go work on it.
It doesn't matter in that mess of trees the first thing I would do is clear and cut an escape route. Maybe even take out some of the trees that are clumped together that have no branches up to about 30' as they will act like an umbrella when the wind kicks up and they are also starving all the trees around them of sunlight. More than likely why the old hickory died. I learned this when Irene hit this area uprooting all the Umbrella trees in its path and they seemed to be very healthy black walnuts. My friend who's a Forester for one of the big lumber companies came by and said sometimes killing one good tree to save five is the best bet as when it gets too thick everything suffers.
Here are pics of the widow maker top of a cherry that was hung up for several years, finally broke off and came down and is jammed in the dirt. Now I have to safely get this down, the top branches are hung up in the other trees.
Just be careful and take your time. Can you get a 4 wheel drive truck in there to hook a chain to and pull it from the ground? Again whatever you do the wood isn't worth getting hurt over.