Lakeside53
Stihl Wrenching
Another gnarly day in the PNW with long bars and full wrap
Just helping out a neighbor.. One 140 ft+ 27 dbh hemlock leaning at 15 degrees, hung up and with the root ball partially torn out, and a 130 foot cedar with center rot. Both as measured.. I estimated them much bigger
The hemlock was a joy.... Had a rope 50 feet up tied though a snatch block to a track hoe.. just to help it out of the top of the adjacent tree and to make sure it wouldn't come down on the house. Cutting the back cut was weird - the root ball was settling and the tree was pushing back. Damn... Full wrap only (escape path) on that cut. Check out the butt cut - if it's not white, it's rotten. Vast quantities of sound hinge wood there! Went pretty much as planned though.
The cedar was real fun... about 54 inches at waist height with multiple wide flared buttresses and a rotten arch up to about 12 feet. The plan was to cut a huge front cut 3/4 of the way though the front wood (sound) and the rotten center, find good wood for a hinge in the rear 1/3, then a back cut and push it over with the track hoe. It had to fall in a 20 foot target 100 feet away between the house and the trees... and the tree was way over 30 feet wide... Decided to shoot a line up in the tree and pull it with a truck ...just to be sure..
My butt. The face cut here was small and "exploratory" in nature.. It got to 45 degree and a lot bigger later.
My buddy Jake...
The face cut got a foot higher and went back to the rear 1/3 of the tree. Unfortunately the wood wasn't sound there either and the tree was groaning a bit, so no one around to take pics... The track hoe became the "backstop".
Note the "hinge" wood
A blatant Stihl ad, just for Mow. The back cut was about 8 inches higher than the face base - I wanted to make sure it didn't push back thought the crappy wood and nail the trackhoe.
Just helping out a neighbor.. One 140 ft+ 27 dbh hemlock leaning at 15 degrees, hung up and with the root ball partially torn out, and a 130 foot cedar with center rot. Both as measured.. I estimated them much bigger
The hemlock was a joy.... Had a rope 50 feet up tied though a snatch block to a track hoe.. just to help it out of the top of the adjacent tree and to make sure it wouldn't come down on the house. Cutting the back cut was weird - the root ball was settling and the tree was pushing back. Damn... Full wrap only (escape path) on that cut. Check out the butt cut - if it's not white, it's rotten. Vast quantities of sound hinge wood there! Went pretty much as planned though.
The cedar was real fun... about 54 inches at waist height with multiple wide flared buttresses and a rotten arch up to about 12 feet. The plan was to cut a huge front cut 3/4 of the way though the front wood (sound) and the rotten center, find good wood for a hinge in the rear 1/3, then a back cut and push it over with the track hoe. It had to fall in a 20 foot target 100 feet away between the house and the trees... and the tree was way over 30 feet wide... Decided to shoot a line up in the tree and pull it with a truck ...just to be sure..
My butt. The face cut here was small and "exploratory" in nature.. It got to 45 degree and a lot bigger later.
My buddy Jake...
The face cut got a foot higher and went back to the rear 1/3 of the tree. Unfortunately the wood wasn't sound there either and the tree was groaning a bit, so no one around to take pics... The track hoe became the "backstop".
Note the "hinge" wood
A blatant Stihl ad, just for Mow. The back cut was about 8 inches higher than the face base - I wanted to make sure it didn't push back thought the crappy wood and nail the trackhoe.
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and bring some of that log with you. 
nice picts shows what makes a good face.
