So I'd been eyeing a good size standing dead red elm (~30") - but with live trees all around I left it until all other standing dead were removed.
No clear drop zone and the land owner didn't want live trees taken out if possible. Well couple weeks ago I picked my best drop zone and gave it a go hoping it would find it's way to the ground - ended up hanging it up but good. Standing dead elm loves to hang up - the vase shape and not much weight at the top makes it a common occurance in the overgrown woodlot. This is a pretty remote area and with the owner aware I gave it some time to come down on it's own - no joy - a recent storm did break off a main branch, it fell so it was almost standing vertical and the main trunk came off the stump but that's as much as mother nature was going to do for me. Had a half a day free yesterday so brought the bobcat out and pulled the broken off branch and the rest down - got a full load in my F450 with 12' bed and there's still more to collect.
Also like to note this is the first trip to the woods for my S185 bobcat- I thought it did well in fairly wet conditions - this area had multiple 2-3" rains that ended last Friday and there is a raging creek about 150' away. The tires did spin when trying to pull the entire tree but once I cut off a couple 8' sections off the main trunk it did just fine and pulled the balance of the tree out of the hang up. No tracks or chains - tires have close to new tread.
No clear drop zone and the land owner didn't want live trees taken out if possible. Well couple weeks ago I picked my best drop zone and gave it a go hoping it would find it's way to the ground - ended up hanging it up but good. Standing dead elm loves to hang up - the vase shape and not much weight at the top makes it a common occurance in the overgrown woodlot. This is a pretty remote area and with the owner aware I gave it some time to come down on it's own - no joy - a recent storm did break off a main branch, it fell so it was almost standing vertical and the main trunk came off the stump but that's as much as mother nature was going to do for me. Had a half a day free yesterday so brought the bobcat out and pulled the broken off branch and the rest down - got a full load in my F450 with 12' bed and there's still more to collect.
Also like to note this is the first trip to the woods for my S185 bobcat- I thought it did well in fairly wet conditions - this area had multiple 2-3" rains that ended last Friday and there is a raging creek about 150' away. The tires did spin when trying to pull the entire tree but once I cut off a couple 8' sections off the main trunk it did just fine and pulled the balance of the tree out of the hang up. No tracks or chains - tires have close to new tread.