Had me sweating!

[BlueRidgeMark]

Well, the Big Blizzard of '06 has rolled through, and didn't amount to much here. Dropped about 10 inches of wet snow. I had a few trees leaning, but surprisingly, only lost one branch off an oak. Not a big branch at that.

However....

While up on the roof to fix the satellite dish, I notice a pine near the back of my house was leaning.... badly. Toward the house. The back of my property is pretty much wild forest - hasn't been touched in years. Pretty overgrown with lots of underbrush. (I plan to clear it out later this year.) This pine was about 10 feet from the house, and maybe 3 feet from another pine. There are plenty of other trees to provide shade back there. This resulted in this pine having branches almost entirely in one direction - toward the house. It was weighed down pretty heavily with snow.

I wasn't worried about it, as the snow was going to melt pretty soon, but I though I'd just take a closer look. Down on the ground, I found the tree had a 3 foot long crack, half an inch wide at the bottom, just below where the trunk split into two co-dominant stems. :jawdrop:


It was an old crack - no telling how long it's been that way. There was dried sap in it, and I could see where it had been rubbing as the tree moved. On the other side of the tree, there was a thin (1/4") crack running down from the co-dom crotch maybe 2 1/2 or 3 feet. THIS is where I started sweating! I also got my family out of the probable impact area!

I dropped it today. Got a rope up into a crotch and secured it to a couple of other trees, then got another rope into a crotch and put a come-along on it.

Long story, but both my saws are in the shop, so I rented from the local Stihl dealer. My second time in the store, and my last. They exude a "You are you interrupting me." attitude. To top it off, they rented me a saw with a dull chain! :angry2: Oh, and the stuff they are using for bar oil is about the consistency of honey in this weather. Straight Stihl bar oil. It wasn't doing much lubricating.

Oh, well. I got it done. It dropped where I wanted it, so all's well. I do have a tendency to leave too much holding wood, so I had to crank the come-along more than I should have. But I was worried about it going back on the house, so I erred on the side of caution.

I guess I got a start on next year's firewood!

 

[treeseer]

yep, watch those edge trees, watch those defects. O and when you're clearing 'underbrush", I hope you know what you are cutting. I had a landscape architect-neighbor once proudly show me his newly "cleaned' woods. He cut down all his blueberries and viburnum to get that park-like look.

Idiot.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

I know what you mean! Alas, the only thing I have that's even close to being worth keeping is some wild raspberry. It produces just enough of a fruit to be able to say, "Oh, that's a tiny raspberry." The rest is wild roses and various vines, and a lot of small, spindly saplings of several varieties.

I plan to keep one edge wild, where it adjoins the neighbor's forest. There's already a pathway of sorts that will be the dividing line. I do have a hickory tree that I plan to save, and a few oaks and a couple of cedars. But I want to get some clearance from the back of the house, and let a little sun in. Right now, I have a major mildew problem back there.

It will be interesting to buck that pine and see just how deep that crack went. I'll post some pics.

 

[rebelman]

One city had one of their workers clear public property. After he had done most of it, I asked him if he was making sure to leave most redbuds. "What's a redbud?" he asked.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Oh, well, what do you expect from gummit workers? I wish I had some redbuds on this property! I need some flowering trees here!

Got a spot picked out for something like a dogwood or cherry, once I get the dying scrub pines out of the way.