Weekend Cherry

[Buckethead]

My buddy got permission to take a rotten cherry tree down in the field below my house. We've looked at it and neither one of us wants to take a saw to it because the lower part of the tree is downright scary. We finally decided to get a another friend of ours to knock it down with his excavator but we needed to do some prep work first...namely remove the sapplings and a big leader from the side of the cherry. So, on Saturday we decided to do the prep work. Here is a shot of the tree and the big leader.

A couple hours later we had all the saplings cut up and the leader was down and bucked up. Of course it never would have happened without the help of my 3 year-old grandson and his Bosch chainsaw. Not sure who was more proud..him or me.

That's gotta be at least an 80cc saw....:biggrinbounce2:

 

[3fordasho]

Let me know how that one splits for you... I took one that had three main trunks out of the base, two had already come down and the remaining one was 28" diameter of the most twisted knarly bad splitting stuff I've ever run into. A real challenge to stack too. I thought cherry was easy splitting stuff, siberian elm is a piece of cake compared to this one. Mine had a fair bit of rot at the base too, enough to make you think hard about it... Went down just fine, leaned the way I needed it to go..

 

[Buckethead]

Let me know how that one splits for you... I took one that had three main trunks out of the base, two had already come down and the remaining one was 28" diameter of the most twisted knarly bad splitting stuff I've ever run into. A real challenge to stack too. I thought cherry was easy splitting stuff, siberian elm is a piece of cake compared to this one. Mine had a fair bit of rot at the base too, enough to make you think hard about it... Went down just fine, leaned the way I needed it to go..

Ah...funny you should mention Siberian Elm! I had picked up a trailer load of Siberian Elm and learned a lot. First off it was soaking wet, with water almost running out of it. I also learned you cannot split Elm like every other wood. Instead you have to cleave off slabs from around the outside and sort of spiral your way to the center. Finally, I learned that when it's seasoned..it burns great!

I'll let you know how this Cherry goes..it should be on the ground by the weekend.

 

[nomak]

from my experience cherry has always split easily for me unless I ran into a knotty piece or a fork in the main trunk of the tree itself..but this wood I split had been dead for a yr at least and some of it was also bucked up before I split it.. I cant say how easy green cherry will split though..

 

[Erik B]

My buddy got permission to take a rotten cherry tree down in the field below my house. We've looked at it and neither one of us wants to take a saw to it because the lower part of the tree is downright scary. We finally decided to get a another friend of ours to knock it down with his excavator but we needed to do some prep work first...namely remove the sapplings and a big leader from the side of the cherry. So, on Saturday we decided to do the prep work. Here is a shot of the tree and the big leader.

A couple hours later we had all the saplings cut up and the leader was down and bucked up. Of course it never would have happened without the help of my 3 year-old grandson and his Bosch chainsaw. Not sure who was more proud..him or me.

That's gotta be at least an 80cc saw....:biggrinbounce2:

Kuddos for having your grandson get involved. That is what memories are made of. I would send a rep your way but being a bit of a newbie, haven't figured that out yet.

 

[woodfarmer]

i see no reason why you couldn't cut that tree down, i dont know why you'd require an excavator?

 

[Jredsjeep]

nice thanks for sharing, its nice to see familes working together!

 

[Buckethead]

i see no reason why you couldn't cut that tree down, i dont know why you'd require an excavator?

Based on the pictures I posted, I'd agree with you....unfortunately, those pics don't show the extent of the rot. Actually, I didn't fully realize how bad it was until it got knocked over. It finally came down this past friday.

Here's what the aftermath looked like....

The trunk was actually a "shell" with 2" of good sapwood and the rest was all rot that turned to dust when it hit the ground. My friend said all he had to do was tap it with the excavator and it went over. I have no idea how it stayed standing and boy, am I glad I didn't try to cut it down.

Oh yeah...we ended up with about 1/2 a pickup load of usable wood....No where near what we expected but, it was better than nothing.

 

[arborsoldier]

That certainly was rotted!! WOW!! Do you think you'll be getting a lot of wood out of the rest of it? BTW, where is that kids PPE? Just kidding!!

 

[Buckethead]

That certainly was rotted!! WOW!! Do you think you'll be getting a lot of wood out of the rest of it? BTW, where is that kids PPE? Just kidding!!

There is prolly another 6 pieces (about 4" in dia)that are worth our time. The rest of the tree is unbelievably rotten and useless for firewood. I'll just end up pushing it into the treeline at the edge of the field.

As for my grandson's PPE...it's already back in the truck...and he's hiding his beer in the trailer so I could take the pic.:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[banshee67]

damn, what a mess !
good thing u had the machine to knock it over... i dont blame you for not wanting to cut it