Yesterday, the Norway maple between me and my neighbors house met the saw. This particular tree was about 50-60 feet tall with 5 large leaders coming out from near the base. It was in excellent health, but we came to realize that it was too much of a risk as most of the leaders were leaning towards our house. If anyone notices, I don't post a lot in the wood shed as I don't have a large property and I purchase a lot of my firewood. I do get a few small scrounges every year. This tree was right on the property line, so I split the cost with my very good neighbor. We will divide the wood and probably rent a splitter once everything is bucked up. Here are a few random pics. This tree was growing more over our property. There was very little canopy on the neighbors side where I was standing. The bulk of the limbs have grown in the direction of our house. The view from the backyard. There was little room for these guys to work. They dropped the smaller diameter stuff and roped the tops and heavier limbs. Lowering one of the limbs. I did not get to see it, but they had some type of "t" shaped steel device that was tied to the base of the tree. They wrapped the rope around it a few times to control the lowering of the limbs. Real good progress at this point, removing the tops and chipping as they went to keep the area clear. They had a nice notch at the base and fell it on an angle away from the neighbors house. They were running Stihls, I do not know what size saws though. One view of the work ahead. This tree service did excellent work. They were courteous and professional. They had to lower most of the pieces down, but there was no damage to either property. The arborist that did the estimating was great to speak with and understood all aspects of the job. Now to touch up my chain and get going on this pile. My neighbor has a stove too, so we will begin cutting rounds over the next few days. Can't beat a score in the side yard.
That's a nice post, you did a great job with the pictures! Pics are so nice to have when your describing what you did. It's also great knowing how well you and your neighbor got together on this to solve a problem. Looks like you will have your hands full with C/S/S in the next couple weeks. How much do you estimate you have there?
Oslo, I'll let my wife know about the pictures as she was the one taking them. If I was home, I would have been on my roof taking birds eye pictures and checking out the saws. As far as how much, maybe over a cord+. I'm not sure as I usually get wood dumped in my driveway, so this still-in-tree-form estimation is new to me. My neighbors are great, we are very close and help each other all the time. This tree has been in our sights for the last few years to remove. My neighbor will have a nice garden with full sun now. The honeysuckles under the tree should take off filling in the void. There are talks of putting in an apple tree, which might be a great idea.
These guys were as careful as one could be. One of the tree companies wanted to bring a crane in. I asked them about roping sections down and he said it was too time consuming. This job was 4 hours with a four man crew.
Great pics Fish! You got at least a cord there. That'll keep you guys busy for a while… and warm in a few years…
Here are a few pictures from tonight. I picked up a Pferd chain file, which is a two in one. It files the rakers at the same time as the cutters. I have never hand filed before, but 10 minutes and it cut great. I was really impressed with the file. The saw was cutting to the left yesterday and throwing some saw dust. After the manual filing, it was throwing nice, full chips and cut straight. I touched it up after two tanks of gas. Two hours and lots of rounds cut up. It was 65 degrees and breezy this evening, with dark heavy clouds at sunset. A gorgeous spring evening. The rest of the limbs on the small slope into my yard will be cut tomorrow, and the heavy trunk this weekend.
Hand filing for cutting firewood is the way to go IMO. Looks like the big chips are flying, shows your chain is sharp. Nice multi file tool May have to look at one
Good thing you didn't hire the crane. I get my logs from from a crane guy and he thinks nothing of running a 16" log directly into his chipper without it touching the ground. Makes his cleanup real easy. A lot of what you have there would have been chipped.
Looks like a big pile taking shape. I like the files that sharpen and cut the rakers both, I have a Husqvarna file similar. I will add I take the raker file out and only use about every third or fourth filing.
Finished the splitting today. My neighbor rented a splitter and spent a half day on the rounds. Some were pretty gnarly. The pile looks like over a cord and half. I have a nice stack from the trunk , maybe a 1/4 cord. All in all, my guess is just under two cords total. I tried to buck half of the rounds at 12" for his Hearthstone Tribute and 16" for my Jotul F3. With all this work this week, I lost some weight and need to make a new hole in my belt. This stack is 12' across by 5' tall.
Good job done right. I hate seeing trees so close to a house. A gust of wind and your roof might fall in. It isn't worth the risk. Took mine all down and you would never know it because there are so many others around here. I've even had to take some down I had planted. I had a a magnolia that got huge. I thought it was going to be a shrub. Was I ever wrong. Beautiful in bloom, but very messy when the blooms fall, and then again when the leaves fall. The roots go every where. So now you have wood for your house and the outdoor oven. Enjoy.
