In my front yard, near a run of power lines, I had a red oak that had to come down. It was two(2) trunks with a common root ball. I was away for a few weeks and when I came back something looked different. I found a picture that had the tree in it from the early spring and it was obvious. The two trunks were spreading further apart, radically further apart. Based on their height I guesstimated that one trunk could take put a pole with a transformer on it, and both, at a minimum, would take out a couple of power lines. Not a job I felt qualified to do. Called one of the tree guys that dumps wood in my yard occasionally. He usually leaves nice stuff. Showed him the job, he gave a fair price. The first picture is his guy, up in the tree, starting on the second trunk. The first is already cut to about 10' to his left. You can see one of the power lines about 15' off the ground just behind the tree. The second shot is how they left the area. The two stumps in the foreground. Both trunks were hollow to above 12'. They took all the hollowed and/or rotted rounds with them and bucked the rest to about 20". They swept the area, shredded and removed all the debris, and offered to come back with a small load of topsoil to even out the craters where he dropped the branches. Sometime it is worth paying a professional. KaptJaq
Are the power lines on your property, or are they run from public utility pole to pole? I only ask because if public lines are at risk, the utility company should take ownership of the problem and deal with it, with no cost to you. Nice pile of BTU's you have there.
We live on "flag lots", four very log driveways leading back to our properties which are behind the two houses facing the street. The power lines run along those driveways. The first pole on our property has the transformer for all four houses on it. We paid the have the poles installed and the drops run to each house so "technically" they are ours. Normal line maintenance is preformed by the power company but we are responsible for maintaining the right-of-way for the lines. What one guy found out the hard way was that if a truck pulls the lines down he has to pay for the repair. He should have called when he noticed the line sagging and a crew would have been dispatched to tighten it. KaptJaq
At least you got some good wood out of it Kapt. I am curious though why they would want the hollowed out logs? Seems you could have made firewood from them.
I don't know if they wanted them but I didn't. There is an outer ring of decent pulp wood, then some spongy heart wood, then a ton of wood dust. For the little bit of good firewood the waste wasn't worth it. Especially with the stacks of solid rounds they left. KaptJaq
This is the hollow stump of the slightly larger trunk. It is a little over 3' across at this point. All of the heartwood has turned to dust. My biggest concern was that the ground was slowly heaving up where the two trunks connected and the trunks were rapidly (in tree growth time-frames) separating about 12' up from the ground. KaptJaq
He’ll be back for sure. You got the guys who just takes more than just a job to do. He takes pride in it. Well done.
Yep. It’s literally like that topsoil with little rocks in it. Looks like the tree rotted out and then the ground heaved up a bit inside filling the void. Likely from freezing? Surprised the tree was still pretty decent that far up...
