Not sure when this one fell, it's been this way since I bought the house last year. Red maple hung up on two of my nicer sugar maples, and knocking over a decent sized black cherry. So it needs to go. Soon. I've been afraid to deal with it myself. But the new guy on my volleyball team owns a tree service business, so I asked him if he'd come take a look and give me an estimate to get it on the ground where I can deal with it. He told me if I supply the beer, he'll bring a couple of his big saws over and see if there's anything we can do. It's a shame - it's a really nice log, and I'd like to keep it to go with a few other red maple logs i have that I want to turn into a new hardwood kitchen floor. But I'm willing to sacrifice it to save those sugar maples. It could still heat the house just fine.
I think it might take a boom truck. It's just off my main trail, so it could be possible to get a pickup-sized one back there. I gotta think the safest way is get above it and start cutting away branches until it succumbs to gravity. The book I have on tree falling recommends notching out 2 sections of the base at a time and keep making felling cuts until it frees itself. But it's awfully big, and there aren't many escape routes.
Maybe I could make the two felling cuts to free it from the stump, and if its still stuck, get back there with my Dad's Massey Ferguson and pull it the rest of the way down.
If you cut it, cut yourself an escape path first. I'd work on the Maple 1st, but that's me, and I can't see everything from here.
Your right about that being a nice tree. Shame to lose it and that cherry is a big one also. I would hate to lose those, but what's done is done. Why aren't you keeping it for the flooring? Timing isn't right maybe?
Oh I'd really like to use it for the flooring - the whole thing. It's pretty much perfect for about 30 ft. That's the thing - kinda sucks to have to start hacking away at the base of it. Timings about perfect too - my Dad just bought me a little old Farmall Cub today! It's identical to the one my grandfather had that I've been begging him to give me. $1500 and it came with a snow plow, and a land plow! Not sure if it'll be able to help with that maple though - still gonna want the bigger tractor for that I think. The maple's definitely gotta go first- taking down the cherry would probably make them both fall, but you'd be standing a little too close to where that maple wants to land.
There's a great video of some dumbazz cutting down a few leaner cherries and doing exactly that. Idiot almost got crushed.
Yeah I'm not afraid to admit that this one is beyond my current skill, and the abilities of my little 18" saw. Hoping to cultivate this friendship anyway. We have a common interest, and he can get his hands on an awful lot of firewood
Well, "next weekend" has finally become "this weekend"! He's coming over tomorrow with his 660 and some tools. My Dad's FEL is just down the road at my sister's house if we need it, and I'm thinking we probably will. I'll defer to his judgement, but I'm thinking we'll probably have to cut it free of the stump, and then drag it the rest of the way down with the tractor. He's supplying the expertise and equipment, and I'll be supplying the food, and beer for afterwards. I have some bone-in beef short ribs from the cow I bought thawing out. Going to toss those on the smoker. The last time I made them, they came out like a smokey pot roast on a stick. Perfect man food for a hard day's work. I'm getting excited. Supposed to be 90 and sunny. I love working up a sweat. I'll post some pics of the takedown tomorrow.
That all sounds great except for that 90 degree thing. We've had one this year and that was one too many. That was actually back in June, I think about a week before Indenpendence Day. Now it feels hot when we get to 80. Not too many of those days left for this year....hopefully. I'm ready for some 50's and 60's.
So I wanted to get a couple "before" pics of the black locust trees I'm planning on hauling this weekend. In the process, I found a perfect opportunity to get some practice dealing with leaners. Ill be working on these first thing in the morning. 1 still attached, and several broken off branches and trees, all 6" and under, all BL. The last pic in the series is the one I was meaning to take. Turns out there were 2 of them in that pile - bonus! On a side note, I'm really liking this stand the more time I'm spending in it. It has my highest concentrations of sugar maple and BL. Locust is a "nitrogen fixing" plant; I'm wondering if that's the reason there's more sugar maples here than soft, which dominates the rest of the woods.
We got her on the ground, safe and sound!He ended up climbing the sugar maple that it was mainly hung up on. Altogether he spent about an hour in-tree. Couldn't get any decent pics with him up there; it was high noon and there was just too much glare. Topped it back to the crotch, while me and his wife dragged the branches out of the drop zone. He also topped the bigger black cherry while he was up there; that thing was going to be a spring pole once the trunk let go. He stayed up in the tree to make sure it didn't get hung up, while I made the felling cut at the base. My poor little 18" Echo couldn't get all the way through it, so I had to make 4 cuts altogether. Made me a nervous wreck with him being in the tree. But what a rush once it let go! My practice session in the morning with the leaning BL trees ended up being valuable practice. Correctly predicted which way it would pivot, though I confirmed it with him just to be sure. From that side (north), I had a little ironwood/musclewood tree protecting me - it didn't pivot any farther than that. Turns out his wife is into woodworking. They got a kick out of my little workshop. The ribs were a hit too. No pics of those either - they were gone too fast! Just some salt and pepper, and an herb crust (from my garden) - rosemary, thyme, sage, and oregano; smoked over some black cherry. This poor little spruce was right in the drop zone. Took a couple direct hits, but it survived! Should make a fine Christmas tree in a few years.
