littlejoetqt
ArboristSite Lurker
First, I'd like to say that I'm no arborist, just an amateur timber cutter.
A friend of mine contacted me a month or two ago about a tree removal at his new home. After looking at photographs of the tree(250 mile drive), I told him that I'd come down to look at it. I made no guarantee that I would cut it for him, as he said it was in fall range of his house.
So, I decided to go down and spend the weekend with him, as we have daughters the same age and they just love to raise cane together. I arrived, and the following morning we proceeded to drop several trees on his property.
He had 1 sycamore leaning over his driveway, and 2 maples that had been topped out once before but were growing back nearby telephone lines. I didn't bother getting pictures of those.
The tree in question was a white pine with a fading canopy, about 70 feet tall and split about 25 feet up. both shoots went straight up, and the limb weight looked remarkably even. No brainer...a rope and come-along would pull this tree just where it needed to go. Too bad I didn't have a saddle, rope or come-along. Like I said, I'm no professional.
So to make a long story short, there was a light breeze that luckily was going exactly in the direction the tree needed to fall. So I notched the tree, and had to wrap my back cut around the tree(20" bar in a 36" tree). I started on the heavy side, once I made it about halfway around the back, I put my first wedge in the heavy side(just enough to support it if it wanted to set back), about 2 o'clock if you were looking straight at the notch. I wrapped my cut the rest of the way around, and left about 3" of hinge on that side of the tree. I drove my other wedge in about 10-11 o'clock, and brought them both pretty tight. I finished my cut down to a normal hinge, and hammered the wedges home.
The tree decided to fall perfectly in my favor, and the homeowner was screaming and telling me the tree was falling . He had never seen large tree cut before, and said he was afraid of getting me hurt.
Anyhow, we limbed it out, bucked it up into manageable pieces, and he's going to let it dry and use it for campfire wood this summer. He bought my gas one way, fed me and bought beer(AFTER the tree was on the ground, of course). I just thought I would share this, I'm tickled to death I was able to help a very good friend.View attachment 176053View attachment 176054View attachment 176055View attachment 176056View attachment 176057
A friend of mine contacted me a month or two ago about a tree removal at his new home. After looking at photographs of the tree(250 mile drive), I told him that I'd come down to look at it. I made no guarantee that I would cut it for him, as he said it was in fall range of his house.
So, I decided to go down and spend the weekend with him, as we have daughters the same age and they just love to raise cane together. I arrived, and the following morning we proceeded to drop several trees on his property.
He had 1 sycamore leaning over his driveway, and 2 maples that had been topped out once before but were growing back nearby telephone lines. I didn't bother getting pictures of those.
The tree in question was a white pine with a fading canopy, about 70 feet tall and split about 25 feet up. both shoots went straight up, and the limb weight looked remarkably even. No brainer...a rope and come-along would pull this tree just where it needed to go. Too bad I didn't have a saddle, rope or come-along. Like I said, I'm no professional.
So to make a long story short, there was a light breeze that luckily was going exactly in the direction the tree needed to fall. So I notched the tree, and had to wrap my back cut around the tree(20" bar in a 36" tree). I started on the heavy side, once I made it about halfway around the back, I put my first wedge in the heavy side(just enough to support it if it wanted to set back), about 2 o'clock if you were looking straight at the notch. I wrapped my cut the rest of the way around, and left about 3" of hinge on that side of the tree. I drove my other wedge in about 10-11 o'clock, and brought them both pretty tight. I finished my cut down to a normal hinge, and hammered the wedges home.
The tree decided to fall perfectly in my favor, and the homeowner was screaming and telling me the tree was falling . He had never seen large tree cut before, and said he was afraid of getting me hurt.
Anyhow, we limbed it out, bucked it up into manageable pieces, and he's going to let it dry and use it for campfire wood this summer. He bought my gas one way, fed me and bought beer(AFTER the tree was on the ground, of course). I just thought I would share this, I'm tickled to death I was able to help a very good friend.View attachment 176053View attachment 176054View attachment 176055View attachment 176056View attachment 176057