How to bring down a gnarly old Mulberry

[Bill G]

I want to first clearly state that these types of threads can easily elicit responses that although well intentioned can lead to problems due to lack of information. In a nutshell it is impossible to give felling advice solely based on some crappy pictures and a sometimes incomplete or incorrect information. I understand that but heck I would really like to see what folks think. Also I know I am posting this in the chainsaw forum when it maybe better suited elsewhere. To classify it has a chainsaw question.....What saw should I use.

Here it goes. I have spent the better part of the last couple months cutting and burning brush around a farm we have rented for the last 35 years or so. As some know I have been "ot of "circulation" for 4 years so I have a lot to get done. While I was gone the brush and trees really took off. Another thread will follow soon about my misadventures Monday in cleaning up brush. In any event today I basically finished up one section of fencerow. I have been leaving this gnarly old Mulberry for last because to be honest I am not really sure how I am going to put it on the ground. It was a wet miserable mess today as I was finishing but I took some crappy pics anyway and will post them. As you can see it is a gnarly girl without a good central leader. It is very typical of Mulberry at least the ones here. Due to the fact that it is near the property line of an adjoining farm it must be brought down to the south which is the left side of most pics and where yo see the field and a bit of grass greening up. My neighbor (his wife) is really protective of his land and is also very partial to Mulberry for reasons I will never understand so I want to put it directly in my field and not have to deal with his(her) objections. As you can see there is also a 5 barb fence in the way. Of course i will need to address that. I already "accidently" tore out a bunch so what is a little more. I will try to attach the pictures and see what folks think. To make this chainsaw related which saw should I use and how big of bar?

 

[Bill G]

Here are some pictures (I hope)

 

[KASH]

Use the saw with the long bar that always starts.
Kash

 

[Bill G]

Use the saw with the long bar that always starts.
Kash

Very true on the always starting part. As for the long bar I am not sure it will need my 72 inch on the 395 or the 84 inch on a two man

 

[KASH]

You never know if you rub the tree passionnetlly it might grow to twice its size.
Kash

 

[Bill G]

I got to thinking earlier. There is a tree service that does not have a good place to park their bucket truck so it gets parked over at our old home farm. I ran over there but of course it was gone so I guess they had a job. The majority of this winter it sat unused.

 

[Bill G]

You never know if you rub the tree passionnetlly it might grow to twice its size.
Kash

Now that there is very true I have seen many women (and men) that had that happen after those two magic words were spoken

 

[pdqdl]

Cut down the section that points towards your side of the fence. Then set a strong rope high in the tree. Attach to your (80hp or more) tractor, but make sure you take a wrap around the axle first, so as to not break the rope over any sharp bends in the metal. Use a stretchy rope, if possible. With rope only set to take out the slack, put in your face cut. Then pull the rope nice & tight with your tractor. Stretch it untill you can see the tree pull towards you a bit, and the rope feels nice & tight when you bump it with your hand.

Now go finish cutting down your tree. Finish the back cut, careful to not finish off the hinge wood or make anything but a parallel back cut. When you get close to the tree coming down, one of two things will happen: either the saw gap will open more, or it will set on the saw. Either is fine! Once that happens, you are almost ready to finish the tree. Proceed through the cut just a bit more, then have the tractor put enough tension on the rope to pull the tree over. The opening or closing of the gap is a sure sign that the hinge is almost ready to let the tree go over.

Given that there looks to be side-lean as well as away from the cut, your direction of pull should be opposite the lean as much as possible so as to avoid falling sideways because of a possible hinge failure. You'll have much less trouble and tangle if you take the time to haul off the first section of tree before you move on to the section leaning the wrong way. Mulberries tangle like crazy.

 

[old CB]

As to the 5-wire fence, detach it from 4 or 5 posts and drop/press the wires to the ground. Might have to lay a log or some such on them, to keep them down. Then drop the tree, each section at a time, as you'll not be able to do the whole works with a single felling cut. After the tree is removed you raise the fence wire back into place.

 

[Bill G]

I will see how it goes this afternoon. Right now I had to address an issue in town and it is raining anyway. I am getting soft and hate working in the rain (when I can avoid it)

Now as with all these type of threads the OP always leaves pertinent information out. I forgot to say in the original post that I am working 100 percent solo. Due to the past situation two of my son's do not talk to me. The oldest helps a bit but he is busy. My ex-wife said she would like to shoot me herself so probably not all the willing to help.

Now their is my brother and nephew. It may come down to seeing where his skidder is and tossing a cable on it and using the skidder. I know both excavators are out on jobs so they are not available. Maybe Sunday but that would be a 2-3 hour ordeal bringing off a job. I will get it done though . Determination and perseverance never killed anyone.....well maybe it did

 

[pdqdl]

My instructions work for just one fellow. Just don't try it on a windy day, unless favorable in the direction of fall.

 

[Franny K]

If it is a line tree what is the local custom.

Looks like 4 cut locations with a pole saw then chunks horizontal with normal.

 

[Bill G]

Looks like 4 cut locations with a pole saw then chunks horizontal with normal.

Not sure my HT75 will do for that but heck could be fun trying.

 

[Bill G]

If it is a line tree what is the local custom.

There is no local custom other than put the tree on the ground. The tree is in the fenceline not the property line. The area to the north (right in the pictures) is the "road" although we closed it 50 years ago. So our township can still get road taxes it is still classified as a open road. If you look in one of the pics you should be able to see a big dozer pile of rotten trees that was shoved out of the adjoining neighbors fenceline 15 years ago. He wanted his fence cleaned up so we dozed it out and piled it in the center of what is technically the road. This was done for two reasons. One being to prevent jack -as..ses from trying to go down the road and "mudding" with their pickups. The other reason was the neighbor wanted the dozer pile for wildlife habitat. On a side note he about dropped a turd in his shorts last week when I told him i was thinking about lighting it up. I wasn't serious because I knew it would make his wife go nuts but i could not help messing with them a bit.

Now as for the tree I say it needs to be dropped across the fence and to the south because then it will be 100% on the rented farm. If I put it to the north although the main trunk will be on the road a good amount of the top will be on the neighbors and that would be an issue. Honestly I could do it but I do not want to because I have to admit their place is very clean and mowed and if you have dealt with Mulberry they are a mess to completely clean up. What i miss cleaning up on my side will get incorporated with tillage.

Now your point to ask about property lines and fencelines is very valid. When most every farmer had livestock there was a well establish and mostly understood set of customs and laws. The Illinois fence law is still in effect today but rarely enforced. Prior to my leaving on my "imposed hiatus" this neighbor and I were headed to a knock down on the fence that he tore out along the actual property line between my farm and his. He tore it out and told my father he would replace it which he never did. My father just let it slide. I told him not to but he was not going to stir the pot. Well Dad passed away in May of 2017 and at that point I told Don that fence was going back in and HE was legally required to pay for it. He himmed and hawed and it sat with no action for a few months. Well I got myself all tangled up in the fall of 2017 and was gone. All I can say is when I got home in December a nice new 5 barb fence was done.

Bill

 

[cookies]

Its better to cut it down whatever direction is safest and apologize to the idiot neighbor as your dragging the trunk back onto the property and putting the fence back up than set up a orchestrated circus that could go sideways...wait for the lady to go to church or the grocery store then knock it down or use the excavator.

 

[Pepster]

Or... wedges.

 

[Bill G]

It was

Its better to cut it down whatever direction is safest and apologize to the idiot neighbor as your dragging the trunk back onto the property and putting the fence back up than set up a orchestrated circus that could go sideways...wait for the lady to go to church or the grocery store then knock it down or use the excavator.

I was frustrated with the rain hampering my burn piles yesterday so I went on a search for more junk tires. I noticed the skidder was back home so possibly this weekend I might see about using it

 

[chipper1]

Cut down the section that points towards your side of the fence. Then set a strong rope high in the tree. Attach to your (80hp or more) tractor, but make sure you take a wrap around the axle first, so as to not break the rope over any sharp bends in the metal. Use a stretchy rope, if possible. With rope only set to take out the slack, put in your face cut. Then pull the rope nice & tight with your tractor. Stretch it untill you can see the tree pull towards you a bit, and the rope feels nice & tight when you bump it with your hand.

Now go finish cutting down your tree. Finish the back cut, careful to not finish off the hinge wood or make anything but a parallel back cut. When you get close to the tree coming down, one of two things will happen: either the saw gap will open more, or it will set on the saw. Either is fine! Once that happens, you are almost ready to finish the tree. Proceed through the cut just a bit more, then have the tractor put enough tension on the rope to pull the tree over. The opening or closing of the gap is a sure sign that the hinge is almost ready to let the tree go over.

Given that there looks to be side-lean as well as away from the cut, your direction of pull should be opposite the lean as much as possible so as to avoid falling sideways because of a possible hinge failure. You'll have much less trouble and tangle if you take the time to haul off the first section of tree before you move on to the section leaning the wrong way. Mulberries tangle like crazy.

I do this all the time on back leaders, except utilizing a step cut. Basically set up your hinge(usually not very deep, but open more than normal or it will close to quickly and tear out the hinge wood), then bore cut it to set up the hinge thickness, step down enough that when you're cuts bypass the holding wood(the wood between the bore cut and your back cut that is below the bore cut) won't break.
As you said, set up 180 to the lean or the hinge can break and you could loose it.