I recently had to take down 2 trees

[maple flats]

About 2 weeks ago I had to cut down two trees that were leaning towards structures. Because my sugar bush only has between 6 and up to about 14" of top soil and duff with just sand below that, in high winds i often get blowdowns. With this year's excessive winds so far i've had more trees blow down near my sugarhouse than any other year in the 23 yrs since I built the sugarhouse. I've had 4 trees, hemlocks and dead ash blow down, but fortunately away from the sugarhouse.

The first was a 29" DBH sugar maple leaning towards the NW corner of the sugarhouse (it hurts to need to take down a good producer like this one). I noticed it leaning about 2 weeks ago as I was going in to the sugarhouse to finish bottling more syrup. At that point the season was still going but was very near the end. As a result of the way the tree was leaning, and other things in the way, such as more maples and other buildings I only had 1 good direction to put it down. Fortunately the trunk was straight and had no limbs on the first 28'. From there up it had a good wide crown. Before I could cut it, I had several things to move, 2 sap tanks (both are old dairy tanks) a vacuum pump,  my head tank which sets on an 8x8' platform attached to the north end of the sugarhouse and a few empty SS barrels also on the platform. plus a wooden structure where my releaser sets. My tractor wont lift the 2 sap tanks, so I got my brother, (lives less than 1/4 mile away) to bring his big JCB tracked skid steer, it has far more lift than my  36 HP tractor and my excavator which I've used in the past is out of service until I get a starter issue figured out. Thus the JCB. We moved the 2 tanks, but before we could I had to remove another tree that had blown down and landed in the roadway we had to use to carry the tanks to safety. That tree was a 10" dbh beech tree that didn't up root, it actually broke off at about 6' up and landed on the roadway. I had also previously moved most of the other things using my tractor.
Then I was ready to cut the maple (ouch), anyway, I had a clear landing zone 22' wide and the crown  was far enough up that it had more width to land in than the trunk. Luckily, the maple landed perfectly where I wanted it to, the only damage was it took down 2 laterals in that section of tubing.
Then I finished the bottling before addressing the second leaner, a 15" DBH hemlock leaning towards my shop building which is about 80' NNE of the sugarhouse. Before I could cut that, I had to move my sawmill, log splitter and a few smaller things. The first 2 are both on wheels making it easy.Then my issue was the safe window to drop the hemlock which had loads of big limbs (up to 4" diameter and long) I only had 16' opening between the shop and the out of service excavator. In order to fix the excavator I had to remove the ROPS, the operator's seat, and the 2 part heavy duty hood, That left the engine exposed. I figured the shop could not take as much abuse as the excavator, I favored towards the excavator. When the tree landed the limbs on the shop side were about 3' from the shop, forcing me to hold branch tips away the first time into the shop to open the double doors. On the excavator side small limbs had hit it, most broke off and none were larger than 1/2" diameter, no damage I could see. Lucky again. Then yesterday, before thunder and lightning sent me home, I cut the butt log into a 9' log, because the butt cut wasn't square, then I cut 3 more logs each 8.5' long after removing a whole bunch of limbs from 4" diameter down to small. I'm debating weather to cut one more saw log or just haul it to a brush pile. It's only about 9" at the wide end, I haven't yet removed limbs to get the diameter 8.5' up the trunk. While "Sawing with Sandy" on you tube saws 6" logs lots of times, I far prefer 10" and up, in fact my favorite is about 14" at the small end . I'll get there again tomorrow weather permitting to finish.

One other point, I had mentioned a fuel issue on my tractor, which I first though was water related, I'd changed 2 fuel filters and had about 3/4" to 1" of water in the sediment bowl. I never got any algae in the bowl nor on the filters. When I finally found it, it seems something was in the tank on the fuel outlet. I can't see in there because the fuel fill is off set 90 degrees from the tank and the tank in inside the cab, under the dash while the fuel cap is out thru the hood, infront of the windshield accessable with the hod up or down,If or when it becomes an issue again, i'll first try vacuuming out the tank if I can and try again, or else i'll need to pull the tank to clean it.. What I did to clear it, was remove the fuel line from a coupling between the tank and the sediment bowl (my guess is as the tractor is assembled they start with a length of fuel lne on the tank and then as they complete it, they use a coupling to join the hoses. Anyway, I pulled the coupling and only
got very slow dripping from the tank. I then removed the coupling to see if it was plugged, but there as no plugging. I then used the compressor, turned the pressure down to about 20psi and blew into the fuel line, as soon as I did, full flow came out, so I put it all back together and so far it runs good.
Back to the trees, so far I have 2 pictures of the hemlock on the ground, but none of the maple yet. I have decided to just turn the maple into firewood. While I won't be boiling using wood from now on (going to oil) I still heat our house with wood when the temperature is down to about 25 F or less, above that the house gets too warm and we use the furnace. Our woodstove can fit over 18" long wood side to side, but we prefer having 2 pcs front to back then the rest side to side. The front to back only allows 14.5" wood, so we like cutting all at 14", then every piece can fit either way. So I've marked the trunk every 14" for bucking. I used to use a Mingo marker, but the only way to get 14" marks is to set it for 7" and cut every other mark. I don't like that spot of marking paint in the middel of the pcs of firewood, even though it's only on a few, I now use railroad chalk and mark every 14", then I can remove the bark where the chalk line is as I split it and always being at the ends of the block it's easier than removing a spot of paint in the middle. I'll get a picture or 2 of the maple on the ground and post them, attached to this post later.

[maple flats]

I got some pictures yesterday, but now I'm not smart enough to load them from my phone to my computer, I'll get my I.T. son to do it, so I can show 4 poor pictures, 2 of each of the 2 trees.
At this point the hemlock is all cleaned up and I've only cut  a few rounds of the maple tree, from near the middle of the log on the maple. I started in the middle so I could rool a round or 2 out from blocking my way getting thru. Once I had 2 rounds cut using my Jusky 359 with a 24" bar, I shut it down to help my grandson who was cleaning up the limbs from the hemlock. When I finished that, I couldn't get the 359 started again, nor could my much stronger 16 yr old grandson. The next time I get down there I'll try again.
Once I have it cut into rounds my kid brother is coming over to split the rounds into pcs I can manage to split them further. Using the 24" bar I'll be able to cut all but likely 3 blocks all from one side, on those I'll need to cut one side then the other.

[maple flats]

I'm heading back down to cut more blocks from the big sugar maple today, until I get warn out. After losing 19 weeks in 2024 into 2025 due to sickness (3 times totaling 19 weeks) and 18 weeks in 2022 due to 3 surgeries, and being 78 I'm still trying to get some strength and endurance back. I'm gaining, but it's pitifully slow. I'm hoping today that I can lift the trunk enough to get a block under it so minimize the chance of hitting dirt as I cut. I've cut it near the middle of the trunk, I'm hoping the Fransgard V4000 can pick it, my loader certainly can't yet. I have a set of lifting tongs, I plan to back close to the trunk, set the blade down, and drive the tongs into the log if necessary, then lift. If it works cutting should go much faster. I'll try to slide a 4x4 under both halves a few feet away from the cuts I'll make. It seems like it should work.

[Magicman]

I don't have to tell you to be careful because I know that you will, and you are thinking the steps out to conquer the log.  

Our successes and rewards come in smaller portions. 

[cutterboy]

Our successes and rewards come in smaller portions. 

Very true. I feel that the successful completion of every small step is a major victory.

[Magicman]

Amen Brother, amen. 

[maple flats]

While I successfully droped both trees exactly where I wanted and with no barber chairing, I doubt I'd have done that well had I not taken the logger training "game of logging" about 18-20 yrs ago. With leaners before the training I often only came close to landing trees where I wanted and I often got barber chairs.
The training, even though I'd been cutting trees down for at least 35 yrs, taught me how to do it better. In a nutshell, it taught me to take more time cutting and cleaning up the felling wedge, but the biggest point was to plunge cut and form the hinge then cut from the hinge out the back, so the tree is held until it 's ready to fall.
In fact, back when I took the course, as part of the final test each student had to drop a medium diameter tree against it's lean and try to hit a stake the instructor had driven into the ground. I hit the stake perfectly and won the prize, a loggers helmet complete with face shield and muffs, by Husky. That got old and I've bought 2 new ones since but thankfully I never got hit by falling debris, but I still use a helmet as I cut anything larger than about 3" diameter live trees, on dead trees regardless of size the helmet goes on as well as on all larger trees dead or live.
For anyone cutting trees down, I hartily reccommend taking GOL training, sessions 1 and 2, 3 and 4 go into skidder operation and commercial logging more, I only took 1 and 2 and I learned a lot doing it even though I'd been cutting trees for about 35 yrs at the time.

[John Mc]

I went through GOL 1-4 years ago. I've taken some of them again as refreshers, to make sure I had not developed bad habits, and to ask the instructor to give me some pointers on body mechanics. They also offer a Storm Damage Clean-up version in our area which I took.

I agree it's a great set of classes. Their methods are not the only way to cut down a tree, but they are certainly useful techniques to have in your toolbox.