Decided it was time to take down this tree at our cabin in the woods. We'd had a tire swing in it for years and it's health has been dropping off every year. Typical beech as it lost it's top and has center rot. Dad had cleaned up the latest limb fall and decided it was time to take the whole thing down. That's a 660 with a 3ft bar for scale. Tree is 62" average. Around here Beech grow about 1 ft in diameter in 75 years so this one is over 400 years old. Did a fairly deep notch and fears were confirmed. hollow and doady. The weight is going the right way but with these, you have to watch quick snaps as there is no holding wood. I watched till I started to see it move and notice the splits in the trunk starting. possible barber chair situation so very cautious here. Call me a wimp but I'll err on the side of life! LOL. Decided to wedge it over as I could get even push, hopefully avoiding the trunk split. Went over slow and steady and just let a pillar of dirt in the middle. trunk broke out when it landed. You can see now how bad it was. Didn't take but a couple hrs to work up but not much quality wood here. It'll burn though once dried out so not all is lost. Time to get the splitter out now. Drove this limb in the ground and ground was smeary enough that dad's 4wd would pull it out, even with a log lift. That's a 3/8" chain so it does have some size to it.
Saw somewhere that someone used a ratchet strap just above the felling cut to hold the trunk together and help prevent barber chair. Thought that was an ingenious idea. Good job getting it on the ground safely. Too bad it was rotten and kept its age a secret. And that still is a lot of good wood. A job well done!!!
We have a lot of beech trees around here, but Ive never seen one that size or even remotely close!! Thats a big son of a beech!! I love beech firewood, my favorite by far!
Congrats on a safe and clean take down! No doubt that is a big tree that is older than our nation, the things it must have seen in it's days. There is some serious amount of 'dirt' in that old hollowed trunk, great for the compost pile!
Hollow trees are some of the most dangerous trees for felling since they have no inner support. Because of this they can be top heavy where the wood gets solid only after 15 or 20 feet up from base. They can't easily be given a directional wedge or mouth cut for aiming it towards its final resting place. These factors make them very unpredictable since they can snap in the middle of your cut and roll at any moment. You did good and you are here to tell about it! Technically this tree wasn't hollow though, it looks to have been filled with about 200 lbs of coffee grinds. Do you perk or french press? Oh and that is one historic design on that cabin! Is it as old as it looks?
Urban Woods , you forgot the half a ton of squirrel turds in that tree. That make for some interesting coffee. Great job Kevin in Ohio ! I've got to drop a decent sized similarly rotten beech this year as well. I've been putting it off as I'm not doing it until I have a buddy in the woods to tell me to GTFO of/when it goes down.
What are you laughing at Maina? If you put it in a neat package and give it a cool name like " French roasted squirrel tree guano" and charged $10 a cup at an equally cool named cafe like the "Belly of the Beech Barrister Bar" hipsters would be waiting in line for the stuff!
No wimpage award there. That’s a dangerous tree. Never know what’s gonna explode on those things. Glad it’s down safe. I have a couple hollowed out red oaks out in the woods. Amazing they’re still standing. I’m not touching em. Just not worth it considering they won’t damage anything when they come down. I’ve been looking at em for years. Never got brave enough to sink a bar in one yet LOL
Sound work there, Kevin! Shame to have to do it, but sometimes we have to put aside sentiment for the sake of safety. Looks like you and Dad had a firm grip on it the whole time.
Horkn was half right. It was probably 50% coon poop too! LOL One squirrel went for the ride down as did a few mice. I saw them run out when it hit the ground. Consider them evicted. The cabin was the original house on the farm. We moved it back into the woods and we have get togethers there now. It was a pretty extensive rebuild as my Dad did most of it. here is a link to the whole project. Our Family cabin in the woods. Before After
