Taking Down The Big Elm (lots Of Pictures)

The tree service came Thursday night. Unfortunately I had a meeting so I wasn't there when they started, but I snapped a few pictures as they worked taking it down.



The tree is mostly on our property (fenced area) but we never could have have the fence go around it for obvious reasons. So the truck and all the branches had to be placed on the neighbors property. I had to temporarily take down three sections of our fence because a good share of branches overhung our property.



The neighbors to the left on this picture are kind of difficult to deal with (I'm using my nice words) so I had the guys dump most on the other property, who have been super to work with. Because I decided to save money ($600) for our belated honeymoon, I told them I would take care of the limbs myself. Because of the grumpy neighbors , the guys had to pretty much heap all of it together.



All the major limbs gone, so the main trunk was just left.



Above is what faced me after they left...yay?!



I took most of the day off today to work on getting a good start on clearing it out since the neighbors have been so good to work with. Above is what it looked like around noon.



My oldest son was back with his fiance. They stopped over and helped. What made it fun was that I showed him how to run the chainsaw correctly, adding to it was that we used his grandpas old saw. He had fun working the saw and helped load and dump a load of branches for me. Above is what it looked like around 5pm.



Although I mainly worked on getting the small branches removed, this is a pile I'm setting aside for firewood. Even thought they are in odd lengths, the short random lengths I cut will end up going to the neighbors for their firepit.

I will keep adding pictures tomorrow as it's obvious what I'll be doing this weekend!

 

Oh wow.
I hate branches.
Have, um....fun.

 

Thanks, but did you say "fun" and "splitting elm" in the same sentence? lol

 

Me too!

 

That will make some nice BTUs for ya schlot. How goes the rest of the project today? Good weather for you?

 

Thanks for asking....yes the weather was just about right. A little cooler wouldn't be bad, but it didn't rain like it was suppose too, but it was party cloudy and there was a slight breeze most of the day.

Started at 6 this morning prepping the saws and stacking wood so that I could load the trailer once I dumped it at the tree dump. Didn't start the chainsaws until 8:30 since I figured the neighbors might not want to wake up to the sounds of my Stihl.

I made four runs to the tree dump before it closed. Got most of the small limbs out of the yard with the help of my bride. Pretty much down to the fun stuff now!

 

Cool. A nice haul from one tree!

 

Ok...last picture. Got the wood moved and most of it stacked where I process. Not a big haul compared to some of you guys, but the largest one I've dealt with.

I was glad to see that as I moved the wood much of the bark easily came free. The far left stack are unprocessed lengths, the center stack is stuff I cut to 32" (plus or minus), and of course the rounds on the right side. Shadow kind of makes it hard to see.





Not sure how much I have sitting there...maybe a cord?

 

Nice job! you got a boat load of work done already.... Look's to me like a little more than a cord.

How are you going to tackle the big trunk pieces? They look like their going to be pretty heavy?

 

Don't sell yourself short, that's a good haul! Looks like a heavy cord to me/