I was tempted to call a pro in for this one, it was leaning towards the house and one side of the tree was on a steep hill going down to a 10' deep ditch so I had to make the face cut on not so great footing at about shoulder height. Called my brother and dad to help, we hooked a cable to it the tree about 28' high and put a little tension on it away from the house with a winch. Dad was my spotter watching for dead falling limbs or anything else going wrong while my brother manned the winch in case we needed to force it over. Everything went smoothly and I'm glad this tree is down, storms were keeping me awake at night since it was likely to fall right on top of our bedroom and it's been dead for almost 2 years now. I gotta admit, I was nervous doing this and hope I never have to mess with a tree in a situation like this again. I'm not sure if I'll even bother getting the wood, it makes a nice bridge and it'll be tough to cut it up without loosing rounds down in the ditch. You can't see the ditch that well, but the sides are nearly vertical. Edit: That's a 28" bar for reference.
It's always nice when things go as planned. I don't know if I could sleep thinking about leaving all those BTU's.
There's enough dead-standing ash trees in my woods to keep my house heated for 8 years. That's on top of the 3 years I already have stacked.
Not easily. In the yard it's right nect to my leech lines, and I can't get anything larger than a garden tractor in the woods because of the ditch and a very narrow rock bridge. And it's not worth it to me to risk burning up my brother's winch trying to use that to get it out. I'm not hurting for firewood right now anyway.
Great Job bassJam. Getting your Dad to spot for you and your brother to operate the winch was a great idea also. Having a tree that large with a lean that is not ideal is nerve racking for anyone. So you did good.
I also vote for Shawn Curry to slab it up. Nice work bassJAM. Let that pucker relax now. Can we pool together some cable to help you out of that ditch?
And relax it did, when I was about 3/4 of the way through the back cut out of nowhere I had to drop a deuce like NOW! As soon as the tree hit the ground and I knew all was safe I started running towards the house lol! And I actually owe my brother a cable, when the ash was falling it hit a 16" maple right were we had connected the cable to the tree and snapped it in half. But for what this would have cost to have a pro drop it, I'm happy to just buy him a brand new winch!
Nice getting that thing down. It would have made me nervous too leaning toward the house. But I don't think there is any way I could have cut that at shoulder height!!!!! That usually is too high to be handling a chain saw. As for leaving it, I would have a tough time doing that. You could be able to cut a round at a time and get it out before having it fall into the ditch. You can even buck that up with less than a 28" bar, especially after that next log you buck off the trunk. Then it narrows a lot. But this looks like too good of wood to just leave lie. We too have many years worth of dead ash still standing but no way would I pass on that one!
