Tricky pull tree story

[woodworkingboy]

Very good description, Chris, like reading about one's self. I'd rather be doing something else at the moment feeling...then instant gratification and relief when it goes ok. Funny how that works.

 

[thattreeguy]

jack, get a jack, back lean doesn t mean much with a good jack on these small to medium trees,

we jacked a bay the other day, back lean, big kink, previously topped, big fat old knuckles on it,
had to go between the corner of the house and a stump,
that ram slowly steadily pushed it over, we cut down to about 2 inches and then just pumped away.

glad it worked out

 

[gf beranek]

Trees that do not favor the lay. Wedge, jack or pull, choose your method wisely and be redundant.

 

[Jed]

Jay: I've been there--or very close to it anyway. Funny how it's so hard to keep your head in those situations. I'll bet that if you had gone with your gut, and loosened up a tad bit, then cut up some more wood, etc. things would have come out much prettier, but still.... I know what it's like: you get to a point of exasperation when you just want to see something happen or just get it over with.

 

[Al Smith]

So you force yourself to overcome all fear and cut just a little more, knowing that every flake of sawdust hitting your thighs is that much less wood holding the tree, and that much more committed you are to enduring the outcome. Thats a sickening feeling.

.

Actually the real sickening feeling is if it doesn't follow the lay,commits and there isn't a thing you can do to prevent it .

 

[Tucker943]

Al Ive never lost one in a residential setting. In the woods, sure. Hell, Ive bumped them right off the stump with a skidder blade. Not pushed them over into the lay, but pushed them butt first right off the stump and wondered where if it was going to come right on down over me in the skidder. Thats pretty horrifying. Im sure others have done it.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Not a pull tree, using wedges, and I had one set back hard on a steep slope over a road once, and hate to think what might have been the result had a car been coming by at that moment. While hurriedly clearing it out, one did get stopped by the blockage The impatient driver said something and so did I, where I best should have kept my mouth shut. Not an allowable mistake losing the tree. It was a real hot day, and was pretty stressed out.

 

[Al Smith]

Maybe 20 odd years ago I pulled one with the D4 Cat that was over a small carriage barn the guy was trying to save which had some lean . My buddy ran the saw and I ran the dozer .

Once it commited it was falling as fast sideways as I was pulling for the lay .We saved the barn though .Ironically the guy eventually tore the thing down anyway .

Actually I've only hit a house twice and it was my own .The lay was right on I just miscalculated the tree height .Nothing hurt except my ego .

 

[gf beranek]

High anxiety tree felling. Oh baby! That sick feeling you get once you are committed to following through is a big knot in the stomach. I've been a lucky sawyer in such times to have saved my arse and private property with a work around.

As I grow older I have come to realize more and more how much this work presents sure hazards and risks.

Pulling is the most sure method to get a tree where we want, but by the same token the method is used to take on some of the nastiest trees a sawyer will ever take on. And as sure as the method of pulling is we are sure to step into situations where it becomes borderline. Be redundant.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Good advice to remember, for sure. Sometimes it gets hard to calculate. Betting your level of experience against something that you haven't quite done before. Then there are the added variables of species, free of decay or not, etc. The had part is when interesting turns into scary.