Got out just before the rains and the big meltdown in the northeast to help my neighbor out and get a tree down in his front yard before January mud season began. It was 33 degrees and about 168% relative humidity when we started and low 50's when we were done!!! This tree was dying at the top, obviously distressed and he wanted to get it down before it fell on its own. Good call on his part. First pic is of the tree from across the street. Most of the branches were on the street side giving it an obvious direction of fall if there weren't some underground utility boxes and the road there. The tree is the one with a rope about 40% of the way up that I set in the tree a week or so prior. Decided to use the truck so I could cut a hinge thicker than normal and get some momentum in the direction I wanted it to fall since it was over 90 degrees from the natural direction of fall. Rope wasn't terribly long so my neighbor made me hook up a tow strap to the rope. He was concerned about the tree self loading in the back of the truck. Came down right where we wanted it. Good thing we used the truck and rope as most of the middle of the tree was rotten. You can see it in the log but it was basically rotten between the two high fiber pulls. I had left more wood in the hinge on the side away from the road since it had a natural lean toward the road. Landed right where we wanted it but we had to manually load the truck.. Ended up being about 20" in diameter.. Got all of the stuff that I plan to burn and the rest is still in his front lawn to be cleaned up later. Will have to do it after this fresh round of snow melts. Here's a pic of the rounds in my back yard (wasn't interested in stacking them pretty) and my method of processing limbs that are smaller than about 4 inches in diameter so I don't have to fire up the saw again. Overall, a good day's work and some good BTU's that need to make their way to the stash!!! This stuff is wet!! My newly acquired X-25 just bounced off the stuff. Also, I'm making the black birch call on this one since it has that classic wintergreen smell when you cut it..
Nice work, & good plan on the hinge. It's always good when they fall where you want them. Decent firewood too. A C
Thanks AC.. When they don't go where you want them, aside from being embarassing, they can be expensive!! Hoping I can use this for 14-15 wood but my moisture meter will tell me..... Looks like for BTU's it's up near white oak.
I did know that rotten in the middle is dangerous. I didn't know that this one was.... I don't generally cut to deep on the face cut and didn't on this one, so I didn't see the rot (but then again, I don't recall specifically looking for rot, just a clean cut). What I failed to do on this one is keep an eye on the chips coming out of the tree as I was making my back cut. Had I done that, I would have been able see that there was rotten wood in there and that would have given me a clue that I should keep a much wider hinge to maintain some strength as it began to fall. Going to have to go back to the stump at first light and gather some forensic evidence!! If I haven't said it before, it's better to have a rope in the tree and not need it, than to NOT have a rope in the tree and wish you had one. I just made the cuts. The GMC put it where I wanted it. Big fan of pulling 'em over with the GMC!!
