gonna try from the ground...

[pantheraba]

haha...got it. I'll stand down.

 

[Al Smith]

Unlike most of you I am not an arborist but I am a rigger .I don't play around .I have two 600 foot reels of 1" three strand nylon and one 300 foot reel plus enough snatch blocks ,chokers and shackles plus the power to pull over just about anything that grows on the eastern portion of the USA . I kind of "over kill " everything

 

[pantheraba]

Love it! Pictures whenever you get the time to do it.

 

[Tree09]

I really think that a highline in an oak with slipping bark is gonna be over his (and honestly mine too) skill and comfort zone, as is taking it in one shot by decay measurement and experience... i see two options at this point. Rent a lift to get in there to piece it out or hire this one (and not wait so long next time).... i did a red oak a while ago, climbed up about 2/3 of the way, didn't like how it felt (just a different shake and feeling), rented a lift, and lived to tell about it, with money in the pocket. It had been dead a while, and the ground around the roots was showing serious decay, and with it being right by his house, i wasn't able to guy it. Free fell or speedlined small pieces till i got down to the trunk, vertical speedlined the trunk. Knowing your limitations isn't a bad thing by any means...

 

[SeanKroll]

how expensive is a firewood shed? Risk versus reward? Is it a 'real' building or 4 posts with a plywood roof?

 

[DMc]

... Also, if I could get assurances from someone with more experience than I that the wood's decay wasn't accelerated by hypoxylon canker (or some other nasty) and the tree was safe to climb, I'd feel a LOT better about the "climb & bomb" plan...

In most residential settings you can't do a proper pull test for fear of the tree actually failing and causing damage. Where your tree is you can pull the shit out of it. Didn't you already try to break off the top limbs with a pull line? If you can't break things off by trying it should be fine to climb. A tree with some heart rot just saves you from having to bore the hinge.

 

[Spellfeller]

I really think that a highline in an oak with slipping bark is gonna be over his (and honestly mine too) skill and comfort zone, as is taking it in one shot by decay measurement and experience... i see two options at this point. Rent a lift to get in there to piece it out or hire this one (and not wait so long next time)....

Totally agree on the highline being out of my league. Don't think there's enough level ground for a lift. May have found a new TIP possibility, but it's UP there and will require new climb line. Video to follow.

how expensive is a firewood shed? Risk versus reward? Is it a 'real' building or 4 posts with a plywood roof?

It's 4 posts with corrugated for a roof. Pretty much a "wood shack," but if it were mine and my neighbor dropped a biga$$ oak on it, I'd be mad!

Didn't you already try to break off the top limbs with a pull line? If you can't break things off by trying it should be fine to climb.

Yes, I did pull it. So hard that it broke my Maasdam (replaced under warranty). I think the drilling video I'll put up in a moment will be more evidence of the tree's significant integrity.

 

[Spellfeller]

First, here's a vid of the "neighborhood":

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wwTTuyw7N3k" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Here's another from downhill. You can see the "wood lean-to" in this one!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PjazAjnTOdQ" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

And here's a white oak? in the back that is actually taller than the scarlet. Could work as a TIP!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PjSe66Lx2vA" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[pantheraba]

Good videos...slow enough movement to actually see something. What got my attention is if you do climb and bomb limbs watch out for them hitting other trees and coming back towards you as they fall. They can sweep you from the spar.

 

[Spellfeller]

Here's some drilling video. You can tell how hard I'm leaning, given the palsy that sets in!

This wood was HARD, and I never got the sense that I was breaking through into an interior void. I drilled in about five places, including into two different roots. In all cases the drill behaved exactly the same. Pulling it back out was no cake walk either!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oQRp0bQlELQ" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Spellfeller]

Good videos...slow enough movement to actually see something. What got my attention is if you do climb and bomb limbs watch out for them hitting other trees and coming back towards you as they fall. They can sweep you from the spar.

Thanks, Gary. Good call.

If I get up there, I am going to nibble on this thing: Very. Small. Bites.

 

[SeanKroll]

I might not mind my neighbor smashing my shack. I might be wanting a new one. You're not afraid of some work. When you price replacing something that could be likely undamaged, compared to climbing a dead tree or renting a lift, it might pencil out over buying a bunch of gear and whatnot. Sometimes 3 fence boards is cheaper than dead-certainty when dropping limbs. I had people stop putting up their new fence and have treework done. It was cheap and easy to replace a 2x4, and a fence board. It all matched.

 

[Spellfeller]

I might not mind my neighbor smashing my shack. I might be wanting a new one. You're not afraid of some work. When you price replacing something that could be likely undamaged, compared to climbing a dead tree or renting a lift, it might pencil out over buying a bunch of gear and whatnot. Sometimes 3 fence boards is cheaper than dead-certainty when dropping limbs. I had people stop putting up their new fence and have treework done. It was cheap and easy to replace a 2x4, and a fence board. It all matched.

Hi, all!

Sean for the win! I realize there's nothing sadder than an update three years after the fact—other than NO update—but here goes:

Due to a bunch of other things taking precedence, this scarlet oak continued to be unaddressed and ultimately fell in the middle of the night during a windstorm in Feb 2019. Sure enough, It destroyed most of Neighbor Dave’s woodshed roof.

The next morning, I set a climb line in a neighboring tree and got the crown off the structure. We then cut it up on the ground.

My half of the the cost to rebuild was $435. Estimates for that tree were $660, $700, $810, so sure to Sean's prediction, a) Dave got a new shed roof, b) I saved money, and c) everybody was safe!

 

[ruel]

Hell of a thread bump

 

[pantheraba]

Great update....good reasoning. Glad to read you!