huge oak falls on house, familiar story

[chuckwood]

I just picked up the morning local paper, a familiar story, a massive tree falls on a house and scares heck out of the occupants. I wonder how often this happens, it seems to happen a lot in Tennessee, every few years somebody locally gets the axe. It's really bad when it happens to a mobile home.

http://www.thedailytimes.com/

Anyhow, there's an impressive photo of a huge oak smashing up a house. The older man and his son were in the house at the time. The guy had been sitting in his living room and the ceiling came down on him, the fire dept pulled him out of a pile of debris, unhurt except for a minor cut on his head. His son was in the bathroom when branches came through the ceiling.

I helped repair a home once that had been almost literally split in two by a massive oak during a storm when the occupants were in the house. The tree professionals dealt with the big trunk, we did the limb chainsawing inside he house. It's an unusual experience to be chainsawing in someone's living room.

When reading stories like this, one has to imagine what it's like to be peacefully watching tv in your living room and then suddenly, out of nowhere, kaaboom! Krakatoa!

 

[kennertree]

Hey Chuck, you from Blount county?

 

[chuckwood]

Hey Chuck, you from Blount county?

Yup. I hang around here mostly for info on saw maintenance and chainsaw milling.

 

[kennertree]

Small world aint it? I come across logs that would be great for milling quite often. If you are interested in some of them just let me know.

 

[chuckwood]

Small world aint it? I come across logs that would be great for milling quite often. If you are interested in some of them just let me know.

Thanks for the offer, I'm sure at some point I'll contact you about that. At the moment, I've got more oak logs committed than I can handle, they'll keep me busy for many weekends to come. My primary interest other than the oak at the moment is finding a nice, large eastern red cedar to mill up. Big ones are hard to find, and I'm assuming they still have some value if mills are still buying them. I've heard that loggers around here are suffering, logs are not fetching a good price these days.

 

[fsfcks]

chuckwood...not that it helps you (KS is kind of far), but what do you call a "nice large Eastern Red Cedar"? I am removing some from my property and wonder if they qualify, and if they do what kind of people are interested in them?

 

[Kogafortwo]

Neighbor across the way had a lightning damaged live oak fall on their place a few months ago. Took my 028 and 440 over there that evening after work and had a great time cutting them out from under it. Big loud fun.

Neighbor's wifey gave me a $25 gift cert for the local Pggly Wiggly grocery store. Bought beer.

Lesson: sometimes, it's good when an oak tree crashes your neighbor's house.

 

[fishercat]

i'm from Blount county.

i moved here from there anyway.i call it home.

that seemed to happen from time to time.i know where that is.

i saw more of them come down after they got away from the person who was doing the cuttin'.

lot of good size oaks in Blount county.

up here they seem to uproot when the ground gets saturated.

not sure how much tree work is there but i hope to come back in a few years.

i miss the Dragon dearly.

 

[Tree Pig]

hers a working link to the article

http://www.thedailytimes.com/article/20091204/NEWS/312049989

and I thought everyone in Tenn. lived in a double wide

 

[catman963]

dang!! that's a good sized tree right there!! Bet that shook the house pretty good!! :jawdrop:

 

[fishercat]

not true. nice houses down there.

hers a working link to the article

http://www.thedailytimes.com/article/20091204/NEWS/312049989

and I thought everyone in Tenn. lived in a double wide

the way the state on Connecticut is going,pretty soon that is all anyone here will be able to afford.when they get the tax bill for the doublewide,they will be wishing for a cardboard box in Tennessee.

 

[Old Cane]

My primary interest other than the oak at the moment is finding a nice, large eastern red cedar to mill up.

Yeah, like asked earlier, what do you consider big? I may have some down....or soon to be down.

 

[chuckwood]

i moved here from there anyway.i call it home.
i miss the Dragon dearly.

I used to ride the dragon all the time in the 70's, I usually had it all to myself, hardly any traffic. I was careful, but had fun, when the pipes start dragging the pavement, you know you're there.

Today, I won't even go there in a car, it spoils my memories.

 

[chuckwood]

Yeah, like asked earlier, what do you consider big? I may have some down....or soon to be down.

Big is maybe from 18 inches diameter and up, these trees are shaped so that there is a lot of waste involved in making a cant.

 

[Old Cane]

Not sure what you mean about the shape. I have quite a few that size and to me they are shaped like trees. I was trying to offer you some. I guess I'll keep them then.

 

[chuckwood]

Not sure what you mean about the shape. I have quite a few that size and to me they are shaped like trees. I was trying to offer you some. I guess I'll keep them then.

The trunks of eastern red cedars are not nice, round circles like an oak or poplar, they are very irregularly shaped, hard to describe without a photo, when you make a cant from one of these trees, you'll have to slab off a lot of wood. I do very much appreciate your offer, but I'm afraid there would be too much driving involved, I'm in Blount Co., next to the Smokies.

 

[Rftreeman]

"honey, I think someone's at the door, go see"..........

 

[ozarktreeman]

hers a working link to the article

http://www.thedailytimes.com/article/20091204/NEWS/312049989

and I thought everyone in Tenn. lived in a double wide

Thanks SOM ,wanted to see the tree but did not want spend time lookin through all the news.