the widow maker

[TMFARM 2009]

so i have 15 standing dead ash. some are in bad places, im not willing to drop them due to height and surroundings. (100' + trees)

anywho, last week i started felling on an easy tree, bingo it dropped right where i wanted it.
started second tree, notched it seemed ok, noticed a little rot dead center approx 3" wide.
so i spin around and started back cut and (crack !pop! pop pop) im like only an inch into the back cut and all heck broke loose. top exploded widow makers rain down so i ran, about ten feet away i stopped and turned around just in time to see the tree had set back going the opposite direction just then a branch hits the ground and swings around and busts my mouth open (loosening my front teeth) and takes my left glove clean off my left hand.
the center top dropped right on my cs 450p dead on the bar!
needless to say i was ticked, but also very happy that i survived with little injuries.

now for some pics.



pic is after i sliced it with my 370. didn't think of taking pic before.



the only damage to the saw.

so tonight i decided to take my fiskars and chunk up some of the stump. i built a fire in the pit.
a little revenge on the tree. see the pic in the firepit thread.

the cs590 made quick work of the entire 110' long trunk.
pics of that will come tomorrow.

sadly the trunk was solid just 20" higher than where i had cut.

begs the question: if i had cut it higher, would it not busted off the stump? or do you think it would have resulted the same?

im rather wigged out about cutting the others. i've heard of others having widow-makers fall trying to fell standing deads recently.
i haven't ran into this before all the years i have cut and logged and cleared fence-rows. i haven't had tops break out and fall before the tree started to go.

 

[svk]

Just my amateur opinion but 1) it's always possible to read a tree wrong and 2) anytime you are cutting dead or geriatric trees its possible to encounter unexpected rot or for branches to rain down on you at any moment-it's best to have someone watching while you cut to warn you if anything from above is about to come down.

I doubt moving the cut up a few feet would have caused any different outcome.

Mainly glad to hear you are ok.

 

[TMFARM 2009]

Just my amateur opinion but 1) it's always possible to read a tree wrong and 2) anytime you are cutting dead or geriatric trees its possible to encounter unexpected rot or for branches to rain down on you at any moment-it's best to have someone watching while you cut to warn you if anything from above is about to come down.

I doubt moving the cut up a few feet would have caused any different outcome.

Mainly glad to hear you are ok.

thanks, i was wondering about that. i don't usually fell dead timber, but i own these and want them down before they take something out.
i just bought this place and with leaves on all the small trees inside the woods, i didn't see all these until i really looked for them.
i no-longer have my logging equipment or climbing gear, so i have 2 options.
fell them and pray, or hire it out. either way it could be big $$$!

 

[svk]

I'd just take down the ones you feel comfortable with and leave the rest.

My project over the past two years has been to take out about 80 geriatric aspen from my wood lot. I let the power company do the ones along the right of way and those further in that could still reach the power lines. I did a bunch with friends and @chucker helped me drop a whole bunch this spring. His skill level is well beyond where I'll ever be so he took a few I would have left. I dropped one that swung about ten degrees to the right and hung in another decent sized aspen. All of a sudden POW! and the seemingly solid tree that it fell into blew up about 25 feet up and the whole works came down. The 12" diameter tree at the spot where it broke had only about a 1" ring of solid wood around the outside.

 

[TMFARM 2009]

i have five that will require craning out due to buildings. 3 of them are over 100' tall. which limits who i can use for the job.

one of my neighbors had 27 removed, at a whopping $10,000.00 price... he still has 15 more to go. but refuses to pay anymore for removal.

 

[no tree to big]

Not sure if this was pointed out as I read pretty fast but rot in the base will not cause the top to fall apart (widow makers) that is either occurring as the canopy hit another tree or an already broken branch is dislodged....

If you would have cut higher in the solid wood yes you would have been better off however if the tree sat back it would have done that no matter how solid the tree was, there were other factors that were missed.

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[TMFARM 2009]

I'm off the computer for the nite. Indulge me, is that a catalytic stove?

I did look at the hearthstone site but didn't dig deep.


Sent from a field

Not sure if this was pointed out as I read pretty fast but rot in the base will not cause the top to fall apart (widow makers) that is either occurring as the canopy hit another tree or an already broken branch is dislodged....

If you would have cut higher in the solid wood yes you would have been better off however if the tree sat back it would have done that no matter how solid the tree was, there were other factors that were missed.

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i should have stated i didn't look up due to having my helmet on, and for fear of what was coming. lol
it didn't hit another tree for at least 20' away. i still don't know why the top came out. but i can tell you the top was long dead. very little bark left.
i am inclined to believe, that being the stump had hollowed out from bugs, that no matter what i did, it would have crumbled beneath the weight whenever the tree shifted.
its a sobering thought of the danger of felling big standing deads.

 

[no tree to big]

80 foot sycamore went right where I needed her I'd say she was pretty well decayed was over 32" in diameter

if u had ur saw in solid or semi solid wood with decay below you are far better off then cutting in the decay. Now I've done trees where as soon as u put Tge saw in the back cut the back side roots just pull out of the ground, now that can be interesting...

 

[Skeans]

I see a slight dutch in the sight cut as well was it intentional or? Cutting dead timber can always be interesting, always read the leans before you start cutting, as well as try using a good Humboldt face to help get the thing away from you and the stump. 10 feet is never enough distance to get away from a stump well thinning always get as far away as you can. Something else you can do in somewhat dead standing timber is use a dutchman to swing them slightly away from the rotten side but always watch your top well cutting no matter what.

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[ReggieT]

Glad you're ok...

 

[DrewUth]

Glad you're OK of course. I do plenty of shady stuff myself, and I gotta ask- why did you stop running at only 10' away? I'd have run much further than that!

 

[KenJax Tree]

Never stop to turn around and watch[emoji52] glad you're ok.

 

[Deleted member 83629]

glad you made it, but this is one of the reasons i avoid dead/rotten trees been hit many times and had one barber chair on me no more dead trees.

 

[square1]

Not enough detail here. Did you throw your saw before you started to run or after you began running? Did you scream like a little girl the entire time you were running?
Seriously, glad you only suffered a loose tooth and not something worse.

I've been doing 10~15 cord a year of dead ash for the past 6 years. The tops will explode if they so much as get close to another tree on the way down, and definitely when they stop upon impact with terra firma.

 

[TMFARM 2009]

I stopped at 10' behind another tree. I knew that the tree was falling south, so I went nw.

Glad you're OK of course. I do plenty of shady stuff myself, and I gotta ask- why did you stop running at only 10' away? I'd have run much further than that!

Never stop to turn around and watch[emoji52] glad you're ok.

 

[TMFARM 2009]

A few pics.
See if you can find the widow-makers in the pictures.

 

[Skeans]

A few pics.
See if you can find the widow-makers in the pictures.
View attachment 455083

Any of that can turn into a widow maker in a hurry.

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[Skeans]

Where are they here?

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[no tree to big]

I recently did a job where we were in a wooded area just "making safe," which consisted of leaving a giant tangled mess, any dead ash because they were starting to fail and land in the neighboring yards. I probably cut 70 trees in a day most about 50 60 feet so closer to 75 80. With all kinds of broken limbs tangled canopies and just pure sketchy **** goin on, not one close call!
If I had broken stuff up there already, I put my notch in bore cut it then tripped and ran like hell(you could be 25 feet away before it hardly moved) if I had a path or set it up with a snap or step cut to release my back strap and pulled with a rope. There are ways to better your chances if disaster awaits

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[no tree to big]

In response to the widow maker pics are you guys saying it's too hard to find them? Or where are we trying to go with this?

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