clayman
ArboristSite Operative
I posted before about the three pines blown down by a passing rather fierce storm; how two were hung up in trees. I decided I would make the dropping of these two, slow, easy, and very deliberate. I would plan every move and take my time getting them down. After they were down I could then decide when to cut them up at my leisure.
Friday the wind was calm and so I tackled the job of getting those two on the ground. The one I thought was be easiest nearly killed me. it had snapped off about 16 ft up and the top part, still big, had fell on a smaller maple, sort of straddled it, and had been stopped in its fall by a fairly sturdy limb on the maple. All the top, with all the needles, was on one side of the maple and the log part was on the other. I decided to cut off all the limbs that extended past the maple. I wanted to salvage as much of the maple as I could although it was damaged pretty bad, but there was no way to cut it down anyway without the pine falling on you. It was hung about 10 ft. up in the maple.
To be safe I put a 4" x 6" x 6 ft oak brace under the pine so it could not fall while I was working on cutting off the limbs. I put a ladder up against the pine at the maple tree and took a small saw and cut off the limbs and up to that point all went as planned. I took the ladder down and planned to undercut the log a little bit at a time and sort of walk it down until it would pull off the maple.
So I went to remove the brace, but what I didn't think of was that I had removed the counter weight of the trunk by cutting off the top.
I noticed removing the brace was a lot harder to do then it had been putting it in place. As soon as it came out the tree fell, whump!, - right down beside me. I wanted it down, but not like that. I was just lucky - as I didn't see that coming.
Just goes to show there is no such thing as being too careful.
Friday the wind was calm and so I tackled the job of getting those two on the ground. The one I thought was be easiest nearly killed me. it had snapped off about 16 ft up and the top part, still big, had fell on a smaller maple, sort of straddled it, and had been stopped in its fall by a fairly sturdy limb on the maple. All the top, with all the needles, was on one side of the maple and the log part was on the other. I decided to cut off all the limbs that extended past the maple. I wanted to salvage as much of the maple as I could although it was damaged pretty bad, but there was no way to cut it down anyway without the pine falling on you. It was hung about 10 ft. up in the maple.
To be safe I put a 4" x 6" x 6 ft oak brace under the pine so it could not fall while I was working on cutting off the limbs. I put a ladder up against the pine at the maple tree and took a small saw and cut off the limbs and up to that point all went as planned. I took the ladder down and planned to undercut the log a little bit at a time and sort of walk it down until it would pull off the maple.
So I went to remove the brace, but what I didn't think of was that I had removed the counter weight of the trunk by cutting off the top.
I noticed removing the brace was a lot harder to do then it had been putting it in place. As soon as it came out the tree fell, whump!, - right down beside me. I wanted it down, but not like that. I was just lucky - as I didn't see that coming.
Just goes to show there is no such thing as being too careful.
