After yesterdays wind storm, my wife's sister who lives across town 8 miles away, sent her a pic of a Red Oak that came down on the edge of their lawn. In the pic it didn't look all that big, maybe 20"-24". This morning my SIL texted me and asked if I had a big chainsaw. I said yes, if you want I'll take the tree down and all I ask is for the wood in return. She agreed so I headed over there with my gear. When I got there my mouth fell open. The tree that looked about 20", was approx. 36" on the hang-up, and well over 48" at the base. This thing snapped off pretty good. It took a 15" or so Sugar Maple with it. I went to work, starting with brush and getting branches limbed. Luckily her 15 year old son who is 6'1" and well over 250 lbs was able to help me load the trailer. He even went with me to my house to help unload them. He’s a really good kid. All it cost me was some McDonald’s. In short order I was able to start seeing progress. I worked from the tops in and within a few hours had just the main "trunk" left. I say that because the "trunk/branch" was about 32"-36" DBH, and was only a branch
The tree was hung up really tight. We tried using a come-along, tried pulling it with my BIL's Tundra, all to no avail. Since the tree was already split, I made a face cut and plunge cut it at the split, leaving 2-3" of hinge wood. Then his neighbor came over with an old front end loader and pushed it down The other half of the tree was about 20-22" across. I roped it as high as I could off a ladder and we pulled that down. Didn't get any good pics of that section. Here is the stump. Measured in at 50" DBH I got 3 trailer loads today. There is at least 3 more there. Id say it was a 4 cord tree. Here is some branch wood. Pile so far
I may go back either tomorrow or Saturday and finish up. At least the hard stuff is done. After mentioning a certain Pumpkin Ale from a local monastery that sells out like crazy, my BIL came back with some for me.
I really wasn’t looking for more Oak, but they’re family and this takedown would have cost at least $1500. Plus I got to play with some toys
That is a big tree for sure no disputing that, but dbh measurement is made at an adults breast height or approximately 4.3’. Dbh=circumference divided by Pi
Only a small portion of the inside of the trunk was rotten. Lots of meat left on the perimeter. I’d say the middle 12”-18” across was rotten maybe up to where it split so 9’-10’ or so. My BIL found an old nip bottle in the rotten center.
The biggest pieces of the trunk I’ll get better pics of when I go back. Pics don’t do this tree justice
I’m not sure. The half I cut last made my SIL nervous. First me climbing the 40’ extension ladder to tie the rope off, then that it would hit his truck that he was pulling with (it couldn’t) tree wasn’t as tall as he was far away. Then that it’d go in the neighbors yard. Him pulling it from the side gave it enough sideways swing that it landed in the perfect spot. I don’t think they realized how many trees I’ve cut. When they say the 460 zip through a 32” round they were pretty stunned.
With all the high winds and power outages, I was wondering if any members would end up with any wood from blow downs. Nice haul!
There was also another Oak that got broken by this tree. Probably 20”-22” across and what’s left is about 25’ tall. I shall take that as well. When all is said and done, between the large Oak, the Sugar Maple, and the second Oak, I predict there’s between 4.5-5 cords. I’ll let you know once I tally it all up. He has some monster trees on his property. Several Red Oaks in his yard as big or bigger than this one and a 4’ diameter Ash about 40-50’ from where this Red Oak stood.
Nice work & nice haul. You may not "need" more Oak just now, but you'll be glad you have it when it's dry & the temp is zero! Biggest Oak I deal with was 54", so about the same size, it was work, but made a bunch of firewood.
WOW! Holy chit! Cant believe you processed that much in one day. Nice that you had some help. Great weather for it SBA! Must be feeling it tonight!
