I had a couple dead trees to do for a steady customer. heres the layout... a driveway with the house on the left and the trees on the right. there was woods from the trees and back. the trees were right on the edge. so they were surrounded on 3 sides by other trees. the house was about 30' from them directly across. the one was a dead cherry with a hard lean sorta into the woods. the other was about a 80' tall ash. it went up about 35' and "Y'd" the tops were losing bark and had no green. there were some sprouts just above the Y. each half of the Y was perpendicular to the house. there was no rot and the tree was solid. the bark was a little dry. my plan was to climb to the Y and remove the small limbs I could reach. it would give me an idea of the condition of the wood. then drop each side at 45 degrees onto the driveway. straight towards the house and the tips and/or the splash woulda hit it. so, I set a line just above the Y, tested it and spiked up. cut a small limb off and the wood seemed fine where I was at. I tied into the left Y, lanyard into the right side and dropped the top. I had to brush the edge of the tree beside to clear the house. no biggie, its just leaves. well it stopped the top in its tracks and it fell plumb. when it hit the driveway it exploded. close but ok so far. so, I tied into the right side and lanyard into the left. I notched the tree to miss the leaves. when I was double checking I figured my cut was a tad iffy towards the house. I didn't want to remove any more wood to adjust it cause it was breezy and the top was heavy. so I climbed up a few feet and made another notch. satisfied I started my back cut. as soon as I did the wind was enough to snap the holding wood from notch to notch. it fell straight back into the tree tops and hung up! my bar was the only thing holding it onto the stem. I disconnected the saw and my lanyard and swung behind the side I was tied into. so there I was, 40' up with a widow maker on the adjacent stem. the wind would blow and it looked like it might fall free. but never did. I couldn't rappel cause if it fell from me shaking the tree, I coulda been crushed. my safest spot was hiding behind the other stem. I used my saw lanyard and tied the saw off to the tree. I then reached out and wiggled it. the top was rolling off and away. i went for it! i lifted the saw, pushed the top off and bear hugged the stem! the top fell straight down along the stem. it raked me coming down. it landed perfectly vertical. the saw was caught by the lanyard. i got down and dropped the stem and top together. i was a little shook up. had it been a single stem tree, i coulda been in all kinds of danger. had i not tied into the opposite stem, i coulda been in trouble as well. it could have rolled my way too fast for me to untie as well. my safety system saved me.
close one the other day!
- Thread starter miko0618
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JRepairsK70e
been there ...done that
Glad you are still here to share that experience [nightmare] with us .......so many variables ...limited amount of luck !!:redface:
Congrats! You just got a little older and a lot wiser. What would you have done differently?
We have a winner! I've always said no matter what the question is, the answer is always go three steps higher. Glad no one got hurt, and you aren't practicing your roofing skills.
