I need to save my barn

[Jeff]

While working out in the yard last week, I noticed a lot of critters moving up and down a tree out off of my yard. When I went to investigate, I found that I had moved my barn into a precarious location last year. I never noticed this tree's health problems before. The way I see it, it is inevitable that the top of this tree is going to come down, and its inevitable that if it does it on its own, it is going to take out the barn. Its a black oak, and the top is pretty sizable.

Here is the damage at the top, right below the heavy crotch. its worse than it appears in the photo.


 

This photo shows the issue is through the entire tree


This photo shows how much lean this tree has.


And this one shows what it is leaning at. :-\

[Chuck White]

I think I'd be hooking onto it, up high with a logging winch and turn it into lumber or firewood!  8)

[Jeff]

I just need to get it down, and it is beyond my abilities to do so. I also have 6 or 8 more trees that need to come out to prepare a place for a new building/ forestry forum pigroast pavilion.  Deal is, we have oak wilt in the area. The trees are all problem trees which are leaning into each other, or over something and not a one can be just normally felled. Once they are down, the stumps will have to be removed as well and right away to guard against infection to our remaining oaks.  I'm going to have to hire it done, and I'm afraid it is going to be expensive.

[sandhills]

You know the saying about death and taxes well I think expensive should be included.  Why not ask some of the experts coming to the pig roast this summer to bring a little equiptment and do a demonstration, heck you could make a contest out of it  just kidding.

[moosehunter]

Maybe you could post them on Craig's list as "Very valuable, Rare Black oak, you remove, only $1500"

:D :D

[Jeff]

It is against forum rules to post craigslist ads silly. :D ;)

[beenthere]

Move the "barn" again, drop the tree, and go from there.
My 2 cents.

[Kansas]

If you can move the barn, I agree with that method. Be a lot cheaper.

[Jeff]

Moving the barn was not easy, and not something I'm willing to do. All the other trees that must come out, moving the barn will not help, so that just does not make sense to me to move it for this one tree.

[beenthere]

Up to you, but I thought that you made the move fairly easy.
With some 4" drain pipe for rollers, you could pull it with your lawn mower. And the pipe will be cheaper than a pro tree remover. But all your choice. ;)

[Jeff]

But where is the reasoning to move the barn, when I have to have 6 other trees within 75 feet taken out that would have to have the neighbors barn moved, his pool moved and two of his trees to keep from using a pro as well?

[T Welsh]

Jeff, You need a bucket truck and an experienced tree surgeon to come in and piece them down, I see this daily and its what we do for a living ;). Its not cheap,but we come with insurance ,skill and equipment. We can do these types of take downs within hours. You can negotiate what all will get done as in just get them on the ground and leave or chip the tops and leave or total removal!Some people still climb,but when a tree is compromised by rot or decay its not safe to put a climber in a tree. The only cheaper way of doing it is to rent a 60' lift and toss branches down yourself. You said you need other trees to come out too,include those in the bid for a better price,get 3 bids and go with your gut feeling about the company!But get a certificate of insurance before work starts.  Tim

[beenthere]

That too, sounds like a good plan.
I like them better in the wide open spaces. Took this one down yesterday. A back leaner, but wedges in place lifted it up and over. Some decay in the hinge area.


 


And down, and bucked up. 

 

[ancjr]

I've made the mistake of waiting until it was an emergency on individual trees, even when I was well aware of the inevitable decline of several, years in advance.  Took a hit on transportation fees because of this, on top of having multiple avoidable "tree emergencies". 

[Howdy]

Last week the neighbor had two Douglas Fir trees taken down and it was a well done job. 

I live in an urban area and the trees were next to the street, about 25 feet away from two houses.  Power, cable and fiber optic lines were within 15 feet running along the street.  The trees were very close together at the base (almost touching) and were more than 100 feet tall, about 36 to 42 inch across. Nice straight trunks and very clean wood. 

The three man crew worked all day and removed the branches by line, and then took the trunk down in three feet sections, chipping everything that was too small for good firewood.  At the end of the day everything was clean, and the homeowner was cutting up the wood for firewood.  It was a very professional and quality job done well.

Even with professionals problems can occur.  One of the larger limbs tangled with something when dropped and hit a power line running from the power pole and ripped the next door neighbor's power meter off their house.  After the power company removed the downed line and an electrician repaired the service every thing was fixed. 

While this was clearly a job for professionals I have been tempted to try my hand and offer to help friends drop a tree.  So far no one has accepted my stupidity and let me give it a try so my record is spotless!  While I can't make it to the Pig Roast, I would be happy to offer my efforts anytime I am in the area.....

[Jeff]

I've been fretting about this tree almost every day over the last year. I've walked out and surveyed that tree almost every time I went outside. Trying to form a plan on getting it down.  This past week I went out there and noticed quite a bit of rotten woody debris laying at the base of the tree. My worries again escalated. So. I thought about it some more and came up with a plan. I figured that if I left the tree up to do what it was going to do on it's own, it eventually would cost me. If I hired some help, it was going to cost me. If I tried to do this myself and failed, it was going to cost me. My only timely option without cost was to do it myself and not fail.

Today was the day.

We actually had a video camera, but as I have done myself in the past with my camera, we accidentally ended up with one still shot instead of a video. I had told Stacy had the camera been actually taking a video, ithings probably would not have turned out near as well as they did.

Jeremy threw a line up in the crotch of the tree, and then pulled up a rope. Before I committed to tie the rope to the tree, we did some pulling on it, just to see if we could get the top to move with the tree standing. it looked like we could, so I put a loop in one end of the rope, and pulled the other end through it, and pulled it tight up into the tree. The rope was now up there and the only way it was coming down was with the tree.   I got Jeremy, his Girlfriend, Tammy and neighbor Steve on the end of the rope, far out of harms way. After cutting my notch. I had them all put tension on the rope.  I started the back cut and hollered at them to begin pulling.

The tree did exactly as I hoped, it moved out enough to get its top just past the tops of the trees that could have led it right back to the barn if it had not, then it basically slid down those trees on the safe side and to the ground.  I was pretty stoked that that (tom) tree is now on the ground and not looming over the barn.  At first I thought I had skinned up the standing trees, but on examination, what I was looking at was rotten wood fiber from the falling tree that stuck to the standing trees as the felled tree came down. I also finished a website today for WDH.  It was a good day.

[clww]

Nice job, Jeff! 8) 8) 8)

[Sonofman]

One down, 6 to go!  8) 8)

[customsawyer]

Now you have some wood for the bonfire at the pig roast.

[Jeff]

One down, 6 to go!  8) 8)

Yup!  8)

Now you have some wood for the bonfire at the pig roast.

Lots of it!

[pigman]

I see in the last picture the supervisor checked out the job you did. I am sure he approved of the job.

[isawlogs]

 He's probably trying to figure a way to get that stick to the house.

[thecfarm]

The Log Dog.

[Magicman]

It is always a relief when it is on the ground and everything else is still standing.   ;D

[Left Coast Chris]

Glad you got this done Jeff.   You have a pretty good crew there.  Hope you all celebrated the success!

I just got done topping 12 weak large English Walnut trees from the trailer man lift we have.   It goes 27 feet high and I use a 8' pole chainsaw.    It took about 4 hours and when done I was much more tired than just doing the physical work alone.  The small bits of adrenaline used over time does tire a person out.   I very seldom have a beer but it sure hit the spot after that.

[DonT]

 8) Well done Jeff.   A masdam rope puller is a handy tool for trees like that

[SwampDonkey]

Great job! Sometimes you just have to brave it and get'r done. It's not like your a green horn at cutting trees.  Another plus is getting outside in the fresh air for awhile, and then some by the time you get'r cut up. 8)

The but of that oak still looked pretty strong.

When I took down my maple, because of what looked like a lot of rot on one corner, only had a slice of pie sized rot in the stump. The big limb that had died about 10 feet up was the source of the rot and had only about 4 feet left as a stub. But that tree was still lots strong, that rot was certainly not growing in size very fast.

[Jeff]

Yea, I expected that stump to look far worse than it did. I figured the entire center was going to be gone. When ever it rained, water would run out of the hole on the bottom.  Turns out, the there was only a small rotten passage running near the edge of the tree about the diameter of a golf ball.  It may be worse lower on the stump, as thatis why I cut it high, to tyr and get the best hinge wood.

[petefrom bearswamp]

Glad it went well Jeff.
Good job!
Pete

[RynSmith]

Yea, I expected that stump to look far worse than it did.

That is very interesting to me - given what it looked like from the outside I would've expected much worse too.

[loggah]

Yup, you done good !!!!thats the kind of tree the forest service would have us save out in the forest!! habitat tree ! ;D

[Jeff]

She's all blocked up as of this evening and the brush burned.  There is some splitting to be done yet, and some picking up and stacking, then tree number two and I have a date.

[thecfarm]

May tree #2 treat you as good as tree#1.

[Jeff]

Its smaller a straight and has a place to go now.

[Al_Smith]

Ya done good .Generally speaking they'll fall with the hinge .Every so often it might be off a little bit .About the time it breaks over and commits gravity has it .You get that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach you might have miscalculated  but there's nothing you can do about it .Cross your fingers and hope for the best .

[Jeff]

I was really concerned about the hinge holding in this very frozen red oak. It did break, but only after the tree's direction was committed. It was warmer the last couple days, but these trees are all frozen hard from all of our sub-zero weather.  Even the butt chunks on this tree are easily splitting with a maul. My arms only let me do a little at a time, but its pretty satisfying watching a round almost fly apart when you smack it. 8)

[Al_Smith]

Even in warm weather it's kind of hard to hinge an oak so it holds all the way to the ground .At least that's been my experiance .

[SwampDonkey]

Ah, just as I have said before, winter frozen wood is easy splitting. 

[Al_Smith]

Swampish ,aren't you the guy that buys it already split and have in all stowed away in the basement about the first of June ?

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, that's even easier when it's already split. ;D

[Jeff]

To bad I don't burn wood.    Looks like by the time this is said and done, there will be well over two, maybe even three face cord of split oak firewood from this one tree. We were getting low on Pig roast bonfire wood!

[SwampDonkey]

Nothing wasted. Will make nice bonfire wood for sure.  8)

[terry f]

   What's a face cord?

[SwampDonkey]

16" sticks stacked 4' high by 8' long. I'd say if that tree was handy to 20" there would be at least a cord. Depending on their being more than two major limbs above a crotch, there could be a little more. A lot of wood in a cord. ;D