You did what for sycamore firewood?

[mountainmandan]

A friend called me the other day with a pretty big sycamore tree that needed to be removed from behind a church camp building. I had put a new roof on part of the building after a different tree had fallen on it, so the caretaker is understandably cautious.

It was imediately obvious that the tree needed to be climbed. Now I am not a tree surgeon, and make no claims to be one, but I do vertical rope work through work, so the techniques needed to work safely are familiar to me. The pictures show the tree with noticable lean towards the building.

My father in law voluntered to be my groundie since he loves any kind of work.

I will post more pics, to show how the job went.

More to come....

Dan

 

[mountainmandan]

So I don't have a slick line, so I put a ladder on the lowest limb, then used two lanyards to leapfrog up to the highest main crotch. Then I put my climbing rope over that crotch and my FIL tied one end off to the base. I am now set up to access the tree using the single rope technique. I descended the rope and we took the ladder down and now are ready to work. I trimmed each limb hanging over the building and swung them out over open ground. My FIL took wraps and controlled the descent. It went very smooth and we didn't hurt the building.

We now had gotten the weight off one side enough that we felt good about falling the tree. I put two lead ropes high up in the tree to give directional control, and dropped it easy as pie. It fell exactly where we wanted.

More to come....

Dan

 

[sachsmo]

wow, that was very benevolent of you, that would be a costly job to have done.




Sycamore can be a real pain to split, but it beats burning snowballs.

 

[Mac88]

Great pics. You have a helmet cam? Super job on saving the building from damage.

 

[mountainmandan]

Actually I was not being benevolent, I was paid well.

I have a homemade helmet cam mount, but was not using it on this job.

In my other hobby where I run whitewater creeks, everyone uses helmet cams and I have mixed feelings about them. Sometimes they can be good, sometimes they are a distraction.

Dan

 

[certified106]

wow, that was very benevolent of you, that would be a costly job to have done.




Sycamore can be a real pain to split, but it beats burning snowballs.

Lol.....that's true

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

 

[zogger]

Nice job and big fun!

 

[mountainmandan]

Some more pictures of the tree on the ground and being processed. Father in law booked when the tree was on the ground. Seems that he is a smart man. Also a gratuitous stump shot.

Dan

 

[spidermonkey17]

Nice work on getting that thing down. One question what is the second picture of? And one piece of advice is to cut those stubs all the way to the trunk it will make rigging easier, nothing worse than getting a piece hung on a stub when you are way up in the canopy and you have to drop down to clear it.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Sycamore?

I worked my butt off last year to split sycamore for firewood. That stuff is tough as nails and splits erratically. The tree grows to an enormous height and spread. That's your first clue to its toughness.

Density is about the same as elm, so it's good firewood. Dries faster than elm, which makes it a shade better (no pun intended). However, it's also a bearcat to process.

I have seen sycamore trees that are over four feet in diameter at the trunk, so they can become enormous under the right growing conditions. One of these monsters is about a mile away. It shades the building where my tax accountant works, so I would rather it remained standing at this point in time.

 

[capecodtree]

sycamore?

second pic in first series looks like a london plane tree, same family. If you are going to dabble in tree work you and your crew should wear all the required ppg. it would be tough explaining to your wife how you killed her father because he didn't have a hard hat on. think about it.

 

[Fred Wright]

Yep, sycamores can grow to be big trees if left untouched. Here in Delaware, they were planted alongside Route 13 back in the 1930s. They're still there along the original 2-lane roads and are friggin' huge.

When I was a kid, there was a grandaddy sycamore back in the woods. We'd climb it, it had limbs that were almost like a ladder.

Sycamore is nice campfire wood... we'd gather up fallen sycamore limbs at the river and break 'em up for our fires. I haven't cut and split it for firewood. Not yet, anyhow.

 

[ShaneLogs]

Looks like a pretty big tree! Congrats on taking it down!

 

[mountainmandan]

Spidermonkey,

I now realize I should have cut off the stubs when I was there, I ended up going back down and cutting them off later.

Capecodtree,

I am positive it is a sycamore, Missouri trees are not going to look like cape cod trees. The bright orange thing on my father in laws head is a hard hat.

This tree was 38 years old.

Attached is a pic of my kids in front of a big sycamore along the creek on my land, yes they get big.

Thanks so much for the comments and keep them coming.

Dan

 

[mountainmandan]

Nice work on getting that thing down. One question what is the second picture of? And one piece of advice is to cut those stubs all the way to the trunk it will make rigging easier, nothing worse than getting a piece hung on a stub when you are way up in the canopy and you have to drop down to clear it.

That would be my head and a petzl ascender. I use them to climb ropes. They will slide up the rope but not down.

Dan

 

[spidermonkey17]

That would be my head and a petzl ascender. I use them to climb ropes. They will slide up the rope but not down.

Dan

I am very familiar with ascenders I was referring to what looks like a running bowline which I am guessing is your tie in point? Just Looks sketch to me for SLT. I like to ascend in to the treee using SLT just rather use double line to work a tree even on spikes.

 

[mountainmandan]

I am very familiar with ascenders I was referring to what looks like a running bowline which I am guessing is your tie in point? Just Looks sketch to me for SLT. I like to ascend in to the treee using SLT just rather use double line to work a tree even on spikes.

This is not my tie in, it is just for lowering the limb. My tie in is at the stump, going over the uppermost crotch. And yes that would be sketchy if it was my tie in.

Thanks
Dan

 

[unclemoustache]

Nice going. Looks like you knew well what you were doing, despite your humble words about yourself. Rep for you!

In my other hobby where I run whitewater creeks, everyone uses helmet cams and I have mixed feelings about them. Sometimes they can be good, sometimes they are a distraction.
Dan

Was that your whitewater helmet I saw on you? :msp_w00t:

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

I have seen sycamore trees that are over four feet in diameter at the trunk, so they can become enormous under the right growing conditions. One of these monsters is about a mile away. It shades the building where my tax accountant works, so I would rather it remained standing at this point in time.

They do tend to get pretty big. We have about 4 that are rather large and here is one of them.

They do like being close to water source!

 

[Dale]

The tree you climbed and cut is definitely Sycamore... as you know obviously. The tree your kids are sitting around does not look like Sycamore by the bark, but .....


BTW, cute kids. Looks like twin boys ???