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It's no oak tree but it's down

Started by Kevin, October 24, 2007, 05:45:32 PM

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Kevin

 ;D

Two days of line clearance, about twentyfive to thirty trees over an area of about 150km.
This spruce was probably the largest of the bunch and more time consuming than most to remove off a toll cable that feeds a small community between Wawa and the Sault.
This spruce brought the cable down and broke the deadend guy anchoring the entire lead.
If it hadn't been for the guys it would have snapped a couple of poles.
As you can see by the pictures there was no shortage of stress built up in the trunk.
Branches locked into adjacent trees and the fear of snapping a pole in the process gave me a bad hair day.







Time for a rest.


This bottom picture shows the top off it.




SwampDonkey

Holly collapsing but rot. See it quite often on field or line edges.  ;D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Kevin

There's no end to the excitement  ;D



This one had a rope on it's tail to bring it down after the hinge was set.

WDH

Too scary.  I will have nightmares tonight :).
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Kevin

A cinch strap was used to hold the spruce together, this birch was heavily loaded and had to be dealt with carefully.


thecfarm

Not looks like a mess.That looks like to be the largest tree there by alot.Wonder why that one was left.All the rest don't look to have any size to them compared to that one.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

OneWithWood

That has a familiar look to it  :)

Good job.  I have become a firm believer in cinch straps. 

Did you have a bull line in that tree?  It looks like it crumpled as soon as you notched it.  Is that correct?  You must have nerves of steel to do that day in and day out.
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

Kevin

No bull line on the spruce until most of it was cut off.
It was hung up on the steel strand that supports the cable and the braches were hung up in adjacent trees on both sides.
It was a good fight.  ;D
Once I had most of it cut a handline was placed on the top end and by pulling back and uphill toards the butt it swung around and the weight carried it to the ground.
That was another problem, the heght at the butt was five feet higher than the ground where the top was laying.
It would have been easier if I had my climbing gear as I could have worked off the top of it but I didn't have it that day.

rebocardo

Yea, I did one like the second tree posted two weeks ago. I meant to take pictures, but, I was tired after the 2+ hour drive and the guy was helping with his own F-250 diesel and seemed decent so I didn't worry about having evidence.

Basically a decent sized oak a bit over 28" snapped in half from a mini tornado and landed on another oak under it and made the smaller 14" oak a spring pole and the tops of both were on the shed roof.

So, I trimmed all the non-supporting branches off with my polesaw and lessen enough weight so it sprung back up a bit and so the big top was no longer on the shed.

Then I got some steel cable into the top and we hooked up his F-250 diesel 4x4 and step by step pulled it free until the last remaining wood snapped and then had him yank it before it completely feel to the ground and crushed the shed. I love cellphones for this stuff.

The pulling job surely was not for my little Bronco II  :D

The part that saved his life was I saw his ad on craigslist looking for two guys he would pay  $12 an hour to help him take down these trees using his saws (poulan).  I wrote him back and said with my equipment and expereince, me working by myself at $30 hr would be a bargin, plus $30 for gas each day.

So, when I had the top off, I trimmed any widow makers near my head with the polesaw. Then I could see it clearly split at the top. So, I wrapped the lower trunk with chain, then wrapped the upper part with cable and pulled it tight. Then ran a pull cable to his truck with instructions that as soon as I started to run for him to pull it down. Which he did.

I almost was going to cut the butt flare off before I notched it, but, I am glad I did not. It was the only thing holding the tree together at the bottom besides the chain.

When I started to buck the tree, as each round fell, it self split into firewood. That made it easier to load into his trailer  :)  The tree got so twisted it was cracked from top to bottom and basically the bark and maybe a 1" ring of sapwood on each side was holding the remainder together. Hard to tell exactly what was holding it upright because it basically fell apart from all the cracks.

If he had cut this tree, it surely would have split with one half falling right on top of him. He was pretty glad I cut the tree for him and had me come back for more stuff the next day.

You know what really saved his life? He was going to cut the 14" oak spring pole FIRST to get the top down so he could cut the bigger oak it was attached to. Imagine what pressure that oak was under to be bent down to 10 feet over the shed   :o

Could have easily been three dead people, there was a lot of weight hanging on that oak spring pole and I am pretty sure if it was cut at all, it would have exploded, the tops would have fallen and taken the big oak down with it all.









They -WERE- oak trees, now they are firewood :-D


rebocardo

The spring pole is in the top right of the 1st picture or the middle of the fourth.

His pictures, not mine, btw. I wanted to scope out all the structures and such and have time to think it over before I committed to the trees and drove all that way.

Kevin

That looks like a tangled mess too.
It pays to take the extra time look them over .

pineywoods

got tons of pics of messes like that from 3 weeks down on the coast after katrina/rita

This hickory was about 36 in dbh. Went into a bedroom, missed the bed by a few inches.



We cut it into as small pieces as we could. It's a wierd feeling standing on a bed in a bedroom with a roaring chainsaw in your hand ;D

Still took 2 big tractors and a winch to pull the pieces out.
One big limb went through the floor and stuck about 3 feet into the ground.

Here's the AFTER pic



1995 Wood Mizer LT 40, Liquid cooled kawasaki,homebuilt hydraulics. Homebuilt solar dry kiln.  Woodmaster 718 planner, Kubota M4700 with homemade forks and winch, stihl  028, 029, Ms390
100k bd ft club.Charter member of The Grumpy old Men

rebocardo

> It's a wierd feeling standing on a bed in a bedroom with a roaring chainsaw in your hand

I think they made a movie about that :-D

Yea, stick houses against trees do not hold up that well, the brick houses fair much better. Though I don't think anything short of concrete walls would stop a 36" hickory.  That is a lot of tree!


Kevin

Here's a poplar tree that fell over this past weekend.
A gas winch was used to pull it off the line.







This is the winch used to pull the tree.



I had to use a snatch block for a redirect to get out of these dead birch trees.
I didn't want to work under any of them!



The tree was in bad shape.



SwampDonkey

Yeah, those dead birch and aspen have to be the worst chicos.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Kevin


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