What's the craziest tree fallin' story you know of? Here's mine.

DMax · October 09, 2005, 12:45:03 AM

Well...back when I was a reckless 21 year old (2 years ago) we had a tornado come through the family farm. Lots of trees uprooted, and lots more had their tops taken off. Guess who was in charge of cleaning up. There was a lot of cherry I sawed into logs and some for firewood. One tree that had lost its top was about 16" across and 25' or so tall, and had barbed wire running through the middle until about 4' up the trunk. Wanting to be in a good position to cut her down, i backed up the trusty GMC 1500 and stood on the tailgate. It was leaning the way I wanted, so I just cut it all the way through at an angle. The far end hit, and my end went way up into the air, and landed on... you guessed it, the tailgate. By this time I was sitting on the cab, but the tail end of Big Blue lifted a few feet off the ground and hit with a thud. I just about wet myself. Fortunately my mom didn't witness this, because I would never be allowed to touch a chainsaw again. It is funny now. I laugh every time i see the 4 feet of stump left and my tailgate-less truck.
David

Furby · October 09, 2005, 01:28:52 AM

Well ya did say crazy..................
Have mentioned this one here before, but I'll do it again.
Note: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!!!

I had just installed my parents pool early one fall, and not much later we had a wind storm that knocked down one of a group of cherries.
This had been a group of 5 trunks out of one stump, one of wich had died and was cut out many years ago when us kids built a tree house in the group. Well the wind storm took out the smallest trunk and dumped in on the newly installed pool. >:(
Didn't take much doing to talk my parents into removing the three remaining trunks before we replaced the pool. ;)
Only problem was the tallest/biggest trunk was to tall to drop anyplace, and was top heavy towards the pool.
I knew if it was cut a fair ways up, the top would still hit the pool, but fall in a clear area at the base of the tree. Then we could drop the rest of the trunk backwards without any problems.
Now I needed a way to top the tree, hmmmmm.............................

Well I got a 16' wooden ladder (two 8' sections), extended as far as I could safely, and tied it together for good measure.
Then I got a 24' alum. ladder (two 12' sections), extended that as far as I could and tied it together for good measure.
Now I took the 24' alum. ladder and placed at the end of the wood one and tied the two together REALLY well! ;)

With a fair amount of rope rigging and lifting, we managed to slide the super ladder up the tree. :

Had to tie the top of the ladder to the tree, for safety, and also added a rope about half way up the ladder to keep it from shaking.
Rigged up a harness out of some strapping I had and climbed up and tied myself off to the tree so I wouldn't get tossed with the expected swaying of the trunk when the top fell. Pulled the chainsaw up with a rope and got it started.

Now my thought was I was gonna need to cut the tree clean through as fast as I could.
Gotta say I hadn't done a whole lot of cutting before this so I wasn't thinking real good, and I had knicked my hand on the climb up and had some blood running down my wrist so I just wanted to get the job done and get down.
Got the saw in place, made sure everyone was still out of the way, and started cutting. Made it about 90% of the way through and the top was falling. 8)
Braced myself the best I could with saw running.............................
Then I saw my life flash before my eyes.

Next thing I knew I was looking down at the top laying exactly where I wanted it, the saw was turned off, and I was feeling the far side of the trunk where my "safety" strap was tied at and the last 10% of the tree had stopped peeling!

Should have made a back cut! :

If it had peeled a bit further, it would have pulled me into the tree and possibly cut me in half.

After I was able to climb down and stop shaking, we took the ladder down and then I dropped the remaining trunk from the tree house platform backwards as planned.

Haven't done that since..................but have one I've been looking at........................... :

:

Frickman · October 09, 2005, 04:10:17 PM

I've had alot of 'coon, squirrel, and other critters ride a top down to the ground, but nothing like Whitepine's bear story! Lots of snakes, coiled up in a hollow tree, have met their end with my saw. One interesting thing happens around here in late winter/early spring quite frequently before you fell a tree. Food supplies for the deer get pretty slim in the deep woods, and they soon learn that the fellow with the chain saw supplies lunch. Hungry deer will show up when they hear the saw and skidder, and wait for their meal. Some get to figure out that the tree usually falls the direction of the opening face cut, and will stand right where you want the tree hit. There have been many times that I've had drive the deer away so I wouldn't hit one of them. A tract we cut last winter was home to five deer that showed up every morning we went to work.

SwampDonkey · October 09, 2005, 04:26:17 PM

The deer are like that here if your around where they yard up. I've also observed moose do the same, didn't have to be winter for them. They seemed to be as dumb as cows when they want those fresh tops.

Frickman · October 09, 2005, 04:43:00 PM

I find it kind of amusing myself, the deer following me around. A hunter was just telling me the other day that the deer population is way down. I told him to actually walk into the woods instead of hunting from the windshield and he'd see some. When they get real hungry, and there's a dozen or two yarded up, it can get a little uncomfortable. You get real cautious like because if they try to mix it up with you their hooves can get pretty sharp. There was one time in March a few years ago where we had some deep snow. The deer would actually start eating the top before I could get it trimmed out. Now that got kind of eerie, you had to watch all around yourself that you didn't get attacked.

Percy · October 09, 2005, 05:19:30 PM

;D ;D ;D ;DGood stories ;D ;D ;D
My turn....heh....Im not much of a faller and hire experts when needed. BUt my Dad is a different story. He is the kind of fellow that uses his head and has done many amazing things using his "common sense engeneering". BUT sometimes he also uses "common sensLESS :D engeneering' as well :D :D.
Back in the late 70's, I had 10 acres with many Western Red Cedar snags that were ideal for makin shakes which Dad need for his house/shop/yadda-yadda. He felled what he needed expertly...cept for this one. It hung up on some Sitka Spruce limbs at about a 45 degree angle, completly detached from the stump. Didnt need much to slide offa the Spruce limbs and complete its journey to the ground. For some reason it wouldnt slide off...sooooo......Dad decides to walk up the trunk of the Cedar and jump up and down for a while to shake it loose, figuring he is only about 8 feet up in the air,he can "Ride it down" if he cant get back down and off quick enuff. He didnt figure on the big stump directly in the Cedars path about mid length of the tree. Well the tree starts to slide, Dad starts to run down, and about the time he got to the end of the Cedar, it hits the afforementioned stump. Now the Cedar is a giant teeter-totter/ lever/ catapult, Call it what you like but Dad looked like one of "THE FLYING ZUCCINNI BROTHERS of "The Muppets" Fame as he flew at least 15 feet into the air. Landed on a bunch of limbs and moss, thankfully but was walkin like he went to a hammer fight , with out a hammer. :D :D :D

SwampDonkey · October 09, 2005, 06:12:23 PM

In College that was what we called 'HammerFest' and the first time I ever heard the phrase 'Let's get hammered'. ;D :D :D

http://www.unbf.ca/forestry/history/hammerfest.htm

Coon · October 09, 2005, 11:11:11 PM

Last winter while logging out some spruce, the guy who was skidding for me was complaining about me falling the trees in different directions as well as being slow at falling. I thought to myself.... Hmmmm.... I'll show him.....

Next morning I had to move to a new area and we had to use a different skid trail and all. While Jack was still in the previous cut block finishing up, I went to start falling.... I cut and cut and cut. Cut all morning. Jack finished the cut block and moved over to the new block. When he went to bring the skidder in to start skidding he followed my footprints into the snow. I could hear him coming. He finally got to me as I was ready to fall my last tree. We shut down for a quick smoke and this is when he asks me where all the trees are that I've been falling today. I said they are right here.... He looks at me kinda puzzled. Where? he asked I said right here and walked away to the last tree to be falled.. I felled it as you normally would any tree and 210 trees came crashing down. I hollered DOMINOES ..... You should have seen the look on his face when they came down. What I had done was cut out my notch and cut my back cut until the tree was leaning and no more. Do this repeatedly in a diamond shape and on the last tree viola. DO NOT GO TRYING THIS ONE AS IT IS VERY DANGEROUS> ONE MISTAKE AND I COULD HAVE BEEN COYOTE BAIT>

rvrdivr · October 10, 2005, 06:27:10 PM

Just this past weekend I was helping my neighbor remove trees so he could put up a fence for his cattle. I dug a six foot hole around a 20" diameter pine with the trackhoe and pushed it down. But it didn't go far before a small oak caught it and stopped its decent. Just then his wife drives up on a 4 wheeler. We were yelling for her to stop but she just kept coming and stopped right under the trees path. At that point the 4 wheeler stalls so shes working it to get it to run and shift but it won't (It is John Deer first year out, and has lota problems). Meanwhile a limb snaps and the tree drops a half a foot. Finally her husband Randy runs over grabs the four wheeler, she runs, he gets the thing running and moves it and them out of harms way. seconds after he moves, and I mean seconds, the little oak that could, could hold no more, and split about half way up sending the big pine down right where the 4 wheeler was sitting. Yikes!

Stay tuned because next week I fell a pine thats leaning right for the corner of my girl friend house. My plan is to tie a rope as high as I can to it and pull on it so it lands in the drive way between the house and shed. I think a video is in order so if all goes wrong, I'll at least have somthing to sent to Americas funniest videos!

Brian

ohsoloco · October 10, 2005, 09:32:13 PM

About four years ago right before I bought my sawmill I was itching for some logs. My dad worked with a guy that had some oaks he wanted taken down. We drove out there to look at these trees to see what things looked like. The 14" white oak was no problem, but there was also a thirty-some inch white oak that crotched at about 8', and a 28" red oak that was close to some power lines.

I thought about these trees for a week or so, and got a little scared every time I thought about that red oak (it was also close enough to hit his house). Well, the day came to take these trees down, and we borrowed a 40' wooden extension ladder so I could climb up the red oak and fasten a chain to it. You shouda seen me trying to swing this chain around the tree thirty some feet in the air. I then hooked my winch to it which ran through a block on another tree. As I was starting to cut my wedge (this was the first "real" tree I ever felled :

) the homeowner said "why don't you aim it a little up the hill since it will probably try and go the other way." Not really knowing any better, and thinking that he knew better than me, I did as he suggested and notched it a little to the left of my clear opening (this yard was full of oak trees). Started my back cut and when I heard a crack I yelled for my old man to give it some pull with the winch. As it was falling I noticed it was heading right for the thirty-incher. The white oak was dead, so it uprooted the thing like a domino

The red oak was down far enough that I could get it on the ground, but the white oak took a lot of playing with to get it on the ground (and a trip to the saw shop for another bar and chain since I got my other one stuck in the trunk).

The lumber is still stacked in my parents' back yard ;D

asy · October 10, 2005, 10:22:13 PM

Hey Brian,

Did you choose your avatar on account of your tree felling techniques???

asy :D

whitepine · October 10, 2005, 10:48:00 PM

I used to have several herds of beef cows (Scotch Highland) and they loved aspen. The problem is they would come running when they heard the saw and get in the way. Several years we had a drought and I was able to keep them going with aspen and I learned a trick. First cut some small saplings away from where you will be cutting the main trees than if they get hit no problem and they will stay where the first ones dropped and eat while you can get to the main pile alone and drop whats needed. I once had piece cutters on work relase program cutting on my place and I went out to check on them and saw one drop an 8 inch aspen right on a cows back, the cow about 1000 pounds acted as if nothing happened. Needless to say I had a talk with the cutter.

sawguy21 · October 11, 2005, 03:40:13 AM

Coon, did you actually pull that stunt?

Kids DO NOT try this at home. Never ceases to amaze me with what we live to tell about. Years ago, a fellow who really should have known better brought me a Stihl he had picked up at the auction for half the price of a new one. The cylinder and piston were pooched so I fixed it as he did not want to throw away that much money. A few days later, he came back saying the saw had no power. He did not know to rev it before dropping it in the cut. He was from a family that I thought were born holding a saw. :

The stage is now set. A week later, he is back with the remains of the saw. Seems he was cruising around and saw some buddies trying to drop a 40 or so inch pine with a 16" bar. They had gone around the tree and left a bolt on the middle. Gordie sez "I can do that with my 24" and went into their cut. Dropped the tree on the saw and his own truck :D :D. I just shook my head in amazement and suggested he leave the logging to others. He was good natured about it.

rvrdivr · October 11, 2005, 02:39:10 PM

Well I felled the pine at my girl friends house today with no un-expected excitement. Sorry no good story to share today...stay tune though :D

Asy, If your referring to the flag, I fly the pirate flag cause that's what I am. I'm a treasure hunter, an Artifact and Fossil diver and am alway up against the states ridiculous rules and regulations. I also take them on in many other fronts! ;D
Haven't heard the term "avatar" since my old UNIX hacking days. It replaced "superuser" in some systems.

Coon · October 11, 2005, 03:51:35 PM

Hey Sawguy, Yes I did in fact pull that stunt. I knew that the forestry guys weren't around our area because a friend of mine told me that the forestry officials were in his area on that day. They were about 50 miles away from us. If anyone ever gets caught pulling that stunt on crown land they will lose all permits that they have for cutting.

beenthere · October 11, 2005, 04:02:32 PM

Coon
One would think that this guy would have noticed saw cuts on each tree, undercuts (wedges) removed, and sawdust chips from each of the cuts, thus giving it all away when he arrived.

Guess we won't try any practical jokes on you. :

One of my experiences was when asked to cut down a pine for a guy, that was about 12" diam and had a lean to where I wanted to drop it, he was back a safe distance taking pictures. I made the undercut, the wedge dropped out, and I didn't change positions but just put the top of the saw bar to make the backcut and just before I finished the cut to the hinge I looked again at the drop zone. Lucky I did, as this guy had run around directly in the trees' path, and was taking pictures. I stopped cutting, yelled at him, and as he ran the tree slowly dropped where he had just been. I suspect I knew where that tree was going to land, but he didn't - and that could have been a real problem. I take my chances and discuss the landing spot now with whoever is with me. ;)

twistedtree · October 11, 2005, 10:07:55 PM

The most alarming for me was many years ago cutting firewood on a snowy day. I was dropping trees while a friend was hauling the wood to the truck. He went back to the house to get something and I kept cutting. When he returned he 1) didn't let me know he was back, 2) miss-judged where I was due to the snow muffling the saw sound, 3) he walked into the work zone.

When the tree I was cutting hit the ground and the snow cloud settled, he was standing right next to the tree with skid marks on the sleeve of his jacket. A change of shorts was required by all.

Frickman · October 12, 2005, 09:18:38 PM

beenthere,

I saw the same thing happen at a Game of Logging class I took about ten years ago. The company whp hosted the class invited a local newspaper reporter out to do a story on the class. PR thing mostly. Anyway, one of the students stuck a stick in the ground where he was aiming a tree, and proceeded to start to cut it down. We had the reporter standing behind us in a safety/retreat zone about a hundred feet away taking pictures. He gets the bright idea to walk over and stand two feet away from the stick. As he was standing behind us, and we were watching the cutter, nobody noticed him. The cutter looked up at his hopeful landing area and here's this fellow with the camera pointed at the treetop. He stopped cutting immediately of course. When asked what he was doing the reporter said "You said the tree was going to hit this stick so I'm going to take a series of pictures as it falls. I made sure to stand just to the side of the stick so I won't get hit". We didn't take our eye off him the rest of the time, and if someone was running a saw the biggest guy there held this fellow by the arm.

asy · October 13, 2005, 05:58:49 AM

Hey Frick,

I think that's what ya call a "Temporary Human"...

asy :D

Gilman · October 13, 2005, 11:25:06 AM

Frickman,
Wouldn't of been much of an article to read but there would of been some great photos to print.

Frickman · October 13, 2005, 09:01:07 PM

Great pictures yes, but could you imagine the article. Logging Safety Class Kills the Messenger

I had a dog in the early '90's that would go everywhere with me, including the woods. She figured out that the tree was going to fall the direction I made the notch. She'd run around like that reporter and bark at the thing the whole way down, and jump away at the last second. I had to start leaving her at home because I was scared of hitting her.

asy · October 14, 2005, 12:20:57 AM

Ya know, I reckon, there's a few reporters I could send ya for target practice, if'n ya run out up there...

asy :D

james · October 14, 2005, 12:37:29 AM

Its called a "Darwin Award"
james

submarinesailor · October 14, 2005, 10:12:28 PM

Back many years ago, we had a house just outside Charleston, SC. Can anyone say "Hurricane Hugo." We were renting it out at the time, so when we came in to help with the cleanup. We found a large 20"+ leaned towards the house. After studying it for a few minutes, I decided that I could top it and the top would miss the house. So, I put on the climbing spikes and up I went. Everything went find until the top came loose. Oh it missed the house and landed on the ground just fine. But, all of a sudden I was on the end of a long limber pole. When the top came off, it released all the weight off a leaning tree. I felt like I was a fishing sinker on the end of a fishing rod going down a very bumpy road – bouncing and swinging all over the place. My wife thought she was going to get my life insurance. Here I was on the end of this pole, swinging all over the place with one arm warped around the tree and a running chain saw in the other.

Talk about a death grip on a tree.

And as if that wasn't bad enough or the worst of it. ;D When I was cutting loose the next 6 foot section, it broke loose early with a large sliver on the backside. This sliver slide down between the tree and my safety belt. Boy did I become up close and personal with that tree real fast. Again with a running saw in one hand, bouncing all over and fighting to get free. This time my wife was sure she had my insurance. :D :D :D Anyway, this time I dropped the saw – had a lease on it, so NO, I didn't drop it on anyone. ;D ;D ;D After getting rid of the saw, I was able to get rid of the cutoff section.

Finally got it whole thing on the ground with no damage to anything but my pride and a few sore muscles.

That day I was a candidate for the "Darwin Award"

woodbowl · October 14, 2005, 10:32:58 PM

Quote from: submarinesailor on October 14, 2005, 10:12:28 PM

When I was cutting loose the next 6 foot section, it broke loose early with a large sliver on the backside. This sliver slide down between the tree and my safety belt. Boy did I become up close and personal with that tree real fast.

That remindes me of another story that another fellow told me. The same thing happened to him except he was squeezed really tight! He cut his safty belt with the chain saw and climbed down. He was very sore for a long time.