Out at parents acreage 2 weeks ago checking for recent storm damage I noticed this large ugly old Red Oak that was a hazard.Top was healthy & still fully leafed out but the main stem was mostly hollow up about 10 feet.There was several large vertical cracks from the butt at least that far also.Plus several more very recent spiral cracks up another 10 feet from some straight line winds.Very top heavy leaning pretty heavily to the northwest.Right where I wanted it actually. Brought it down this morning.Jonsered 2077 Turbo w/ 20" bar barely made it through at 5 feet up....Going back in a couple weeks I'll need 28" or 32" bar to get the stump near flush with the ground. Just a matter of time before it came down on its own- I didnt want it to be when someone was walking nearby.I knew it was weak & would not go in the precise way that I normally fell them. Sure it looks like crap,but this was a firewood tree & not a prime specimen I'd cut more cleanly for lumber.Roughly 90 feet tall,it brought down another smaller equally worthless cull nearby that I was wanting to remove also. Made one heckuva boom when that first crack started to tip it over... Should get close to 3 loads when its all processed.
Nice work! Looks like a hairy one for sure! Glad everyone is safe and now you have some prime BTUs as a reward! Just trying to read your stump a little... Looks like it barber chaired on you shortly into the back cut? Probably can't be avoided on a tree that hollow. I don't think I would have bore cut it either for fear of removing too much wood on one side. I'll bet that made one heck of a sound!
Yup.I knew that's what it would do,especially with the long vertical cracks already going up the trunk.Nothing to do but proceed with extreme caution & be ready to drop the saw & run like Hell!!! Really thought it out for past 2 weeks,had escape path planned out,clear of obstacles already.Just wanted it to fold over,especially being so heavy on one side.And so it did. Dad taught me well,many many years ago. He was outside the house several hundred feet away up across the ravine when it happened. "Sounds like you brought another one down also,I heard more than 1 boom.... " Not the worst one I dropped,but the worst one since July 2010.
despite its early demise, it all works out in the end...with a couple years of drying time it will help heat your home, it did not go to waste. nice work getting it down safely
Any more, those are the ones I leave to Mother Nature. If I did cut it, I'd first have been tieing it off to make sure it would not fall where it was not wanted or had a skidder backed up against it pushing.
