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If you had to study them for an hour, hire it out. When I look at a tree, I usually know right away if it is in my skill level. No shame in defering to a pro.
 
zogger,

Yeppers for the cut near the rootball.
Who knows what the force is tree VS roots.
Any way you cut it could be a problem.
As you cut it would tell whats going on though with pinchy saw or widening gap.

I've been cutting for quite a while and those sort of looks easy looking trees are the ones that get you.
 
Those are some nice trees, You could tackle it if you wanted too but if it is out of your confidence level. Don't chance it. We don't need anyone getting hurt over a tree. After they get cut, you can just push the root balls back in the hole.
 
I took a few more pictures of the trees and the snag, it is a hard thing to photograph. Also, I think I was wrong, the top tree is probably an Ash. The canopy crashed down through the oak tree and brought down a bunch of branches. The Oak is the only ony with any foliage left and I thought it was on the Ash tree. View attachment 260760View attachment 260762View attachment 260763

I spoke with the tree company today and they think it will be a couple of months before he can get here to cut them down. They said that after last years Halloween storm it took almost 4 months to catch up. Good news for Tip Top Tree Service (from Montville, NJ; that is for all you homeowners that may be looking for an honest, experienced tree guy; yeah, I am plugging him:) ), one of my neighbors wants to have 3-4 trees taken down. Good news for me, they give me all the wood for firewood.
 
dbmatt said:
I took a few more pictures of the trees and the snag, it is a hard thing to photograph. Also, I think I was wrong, the top tree is probably an Ash. The canopy crashed down through the oak tree and brought down a bunch of branches. The Oak is the only ony with any foliage left and I thought it was on the Ash tree. View attachment 260760View attachment 260762View attachment 260763

I spoke with the tree company today and they think it will be a couple of months before he can get here to cut them down. They said that after last years Halloween storm it took almost 4 months to catch up. Good news for Tip Top Tree Service (from Montville, NJ; that is for all you homeowners that may be looking for an honest, experienced tree guy; yeah, I am plugging him:) ), one of my neighbors wants to have 3-4 trees taken down. Good news for me, they give me all the wood for firewood.
Click to expand...

Well, just think of it as paying for a little education. You can watch while they do your tree and the neighbors trees and learn a lot.

I am learning more just from this forum here and practicing, although I *wish* I could spend some time with a bonafide pro and have him yell at me a lot and let me watch him do a lot of difficult cuts....

Today I did another leaner, I'll call it a medium leaner, an 18 inch or so sweetgum. It had to fall around 70 degrees from the direction of the lean to not get hung up. So...I just took a swing at it. I did a shallow face cut, sniped the edges, cut a coosbay T cut leaving a little more hinge wood on the steer direction side, then borecut the T and beavered that cut out as fast as possible. As in I didn't dither and was using a fresh sharpened good chip throwin' chain.

Finished the cut. Saw in hand backed off fast.

Watched the tree sit there. Nothing. Crickets. It's sitting there. Not a budge, not a creak, nada, zip, nothing. It's like no cuts were made....

I am like WTF now???

Then about 15 seconds later it leaned over and fell where I wanted it to go. Yippee!

I am sure I still would have gotten yelled at by a pro, though ;)
 
zogger said:
Well, just think of it as paying for a little education. You can watch while they do your tree and the neighbors trees and learn a lot.

I am learning more just from this forum here and practicing, although I *wish* I could spend some time with a bonafide pro and have him yell at me a lot and let me watch him do a lot of difficult cuts....

Today I did another leaner, I'll call it a medium leaner, an 18 inch or so sweetgum. It had to fall around 70 degrees from the direction of the lean to not get hung up. So...I just took a swing at it. I did a shallow face cut, sniped the edges, cut a coosbay T cut leaving a little more hinge wood on the steer direction side, then borecut the T and beavered that cut out as fast as possible. As in I didn't dither and was using a fresh sharpened good chip throwin' chain.

Finished the cut. Saw in hand backed off fast.

Watched the tree sit there. Nothing. Crickets. It's sitting there. Not a budge, not a creak, nada, zip, nothing. It's like no cuts were made....

I am like WTF now???

Then about 15 seconds later it leaned over and fell where I wanted it to go. Yippee!

I am sure I still would have gotten yelled at by a pro, though ;)
Click to expand...

I'm no pro, Zogger but I ain't gonna yell at ya either. Soon as I read sweetgum I had commiserate. :)

Have been felling some gums this year, the woodlot is rife with 'em. They're tall forest trees with no lean. Similar results here, it's like I have to make a narrow hinge and use felling wedges to get 'em to go.
 
i managed to get hooked up with some black walnut. although not the best, it is free. by the time i'm done, i should have about 5 full cords for next winter to add to the stacks.

i don't like getting that much of the same wood, but, beggars can't be choosey.


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mga said:
i managed to get hooked up with some black walnut. although not the best, it is free. by the time i'm done, i should have about 5 full cords for next winter to add to the stacks.

i don't like getting that much of the same wood, but, beggars can't be choosey.



That looks like a nice score. I do not know how much wood I will get from these trees but these are the biggest trees I have dealt with. Last year "Irene" knocked over a nice red oak at my sisters house but it was not as big as these two. Are you thinking of milling any of the walnut?
Click to expand...
 
I did get to take the Makita and the Echo for a spin today in a friends Blue Spruce that blew down last week. Now I see why they use pine in the chainsaw races. Over all the base of the tree was about 15 inches in diameter. It was so easy to cut, the Makita barely slowed down. The chips were flying! ...it was fun. My friend was trying to use his Poulan electric saw and was simply amazed at how fast a nice big saw could cut. I think there were other problems with his saw. The chain was way to tight and I think it as sharpened poorly. He spent a few hours before he called me but he finally came to his senses and we cleaned it up in about an hour and a half.
 
dbmatt said:
That looks like a nice score. I do not know how much wood I will get from these trees but these are the biggest trees I have dealt with. Last year "Irene" knocked over a nice red oak at my sisters house but it was not as big as these two. Are you thinking of milling any of the walnut?
Click to expand...

nope. all going to end up being fire wood.

problem is i found some old nails in pieces i've split open.

the pictures show what is left to cut and split.

i didn't show what i have split already.
 
It took 6 months to get here...

...but we finally took down the leaning trees. Over two weekends. I worked with Jim Strickland of Tip Top Tree Service last weekend to get the snaggle of branches out of the other trees and this weekend finally took off the root balls and the trunks are finally down. Now the real work begins of cutting, moving and splitting all that firewood. View attachment 297322View attachment 297325View attachment 297327View attachment 297329View attachment 297333
These photos were from last weekend clearing the the trees from each other... more to come...
 
dbmatt,

Since you have the root balls out of the ground why not use them also?
After you cut away all the wood you want just drag them to a place for nature to wash away the dirt and cut them up in a month or two when they are clean.
Or even visit them as they are in a month or two and cut away what is clean.

Root wood is easily the highest btu wood on any tree compared to the rest of the tree.
 
haveawoody said:
dbmatt,

Since you have the root balls out of the ground why not use them also?
After you cut away all the wood you want just drag them to a place for nature to wash away the dirt and cut them up in a month or two when they are clean.
Or even visit them as they are in a month or two and cut away what is clean.

Root wood is easily the highest btu wood on any tree compared to the rest of the tree.
Click to expand...

But also the nicest of it all! It should have fantastic growing lines. I would cut some boards out of it and use it for sometihng else.

7
 
7sleeper,

Yeppers another good use for the root ball wood.

I cut up a couple big blow down sugar maples a couple years ago that has been sitting out for months so the root balls were all but dirt free.
After cutting up and hauling away all the wood I decided why not take the root balls also.
It was probably 2 times as hard to cut up as the main wood and a little like cutting stone.
2 big root balls worked out to around 3/4 cord of wood that burned more like Osage Orange than sugar maple.
I wonder what the root ball of an Osage orange would burn like :)
As hard maple boards I bet it would have made for some very interesting very tough planks.


Not a venture to take up on a regular tree drop though just way to much work to get the root ball out, but a blow down well worth the effort and wait time for nature to clean it so you can cut it.
 
"I wonder what the root ball of an Osage orange would burn like "

Don't know what it would burn like but I used this one for decoration in my yard. Set it among some iris and added some tiger lilies in front of it.
 
John_in_KS,

You should cut it up in the fall and see what it does in the fireplace.
I bet it would be like burning coal.

Replace the yard stump with some crappy wood stump :)
 

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