Kerrrraaasssshhhhh!!

So there I am sat on my couch taking it easy, actually having a really good conversation with one of the regs on MSN when KERRRRRASSSSSHHHHHH brought me back to reality

I looked out expected to see the neighbor's tree falling and trying to decide which way I should run, but nothing seemed to be rocking.......until.........

Thankfully no one was in and the dog was out too in the backyard so didn't get hurt. Now we are taking the top out and dropping the rest in the road as a safety precaution. First pic is to give you an idea of the size we are talking on limbs. More photos to follow. What a thing to come home to for the weekend. Some structural damage on the roof but the limb still holding most of it's own weight right now.

 

good thing no one got hurt...

hopefully the cars in the garage didnt get damaged too badly...?

 

What a grand old tree and it looks very healthy. Man, that limb looks like a tree just on it's own!:eek

 

There were no cars in the garage either thankfully. No-one was at their home. Just me at home deciding which way to run as I heard that all to familiar cracking sounds.

Actually augie, it is very unhealthy. Where the limb broke off you can put your whole arm down in to the trunk, it is that rotten.

Amazingly enough the way the bough was, it was right over our house, but did a huge twist as it came down and fell on the neighbors house. Had it been our house it would have landed exactly where I was sitting chatting on the laptop.....

More pics.

 

was it windy or just decided to fall?

 

There wasn't even a breeze Darlene, It just dropped down.

 

you are planning to cut the rest of the tree down, right, since its in such bad condition?

 

Glad you are ok Lev. Too bad for your neighbors though!

 

The tree is *just* on the neighbor's property. We cut the one down on our land that was bad a couple of years ago.

The neighbors are actually relieved it didn't come down on our property.

And yes, the whole tree is coming down tomorrow morning, as is the next neighbor along's tree which is also rotten. We get the fun of blocking off the road and just dropping the whole deal. I think this served as a good wake-up call for everyone.

 

Seriously, I'm just thankful to not be in the Emergency Room tonight. A house can be easily repaired.

Thanks to you all for your concern

 

This just turned up outside the house for tomorrow's fun, All happens here on a Friday night :-D Good job we have construction and timberfalling covered between the two houses!

 

Just paused in watching football to check the forums and saw this... wow. Very glad you're okay.

 

Thanks Mimsy...we are all quite relieved...could have been a lot worse. Some trusses and framework and shingles are damaged, but for the most part it stood the blow really well.

 

It's just hitting home here how blessed I am to be alive and safe tonight, and that the bough didn't touch our house, car or trailer that it hung over. It is totally amazing. Here is a pic taken 3 years ago (ignore all the men's butts that were re-roofing!) but you can see the bough and how large it is and how it hung right over our house. It is the one that looks like it is growing out of our chimney. It comes right over our house. Now it goes right over the neighbor's garage, across their kitchen and in to their backyard.

 

Woha!, glad it missed you and your home, Lev. Like you said, 'prolly a bit of a wakeup call.

Had a series of incidences with my next door neighbour's big White Gum tree out the front of his property. It's only his rental property, so he doesn't want to spend anything on it. The big tree kept shorting out the overhead power lines. So he gets told by the power Co. numerous times to get the tree pruned or removed, but to no avail. He eventually ends up with a citation and a fine, and decides it would be a good idea to cut the tree back. So the whole tree gets lopped off, with just a 10 foot high stump sticking up. Told the guy to ring-bark or poison the stump or it will grow back again. (Gum trees have huge root systems).

But that was too much effort, apparently and nine months later, there is seven huge trunks shooting up from the original one. The tree's just loving the prune back. Then we got a few winter storms and two huge branches come crashing down, smashing a section of fence and obstructing my entire driveway. Well, I wasn’t real happy about that, and got the branches cutup and removed, and gave him the bill. He's finally decided to ring-bark the trunk, eh.rolleyes

There was a birdy nest in the Gum tree, so did a rescue, and duct taped the nest onto one of my trees, (really!). Well, one out of the two chicks survived, so it did some good, I guess.


Edit: This gives you an idea of how big White Gums can grow.:- http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2205/2185309456_89a984bcfa.jpg

 

Glad to hear that no one was hurt Lev.

You will have plenty of logs for winter now

 

There's nothing easy about downing a rotten tree. They have a very nasty tendancy to break apart when they hit the ground. I've seen some nasty injuries as a result.

 

Thank god the limb fell on the garage & not on someone walking down the side walk. Glad to hear no one was hurt.

 

Wow. That was some seriously good luck you had with that. I'm glad nobody was hurt.

 

Luck had nothing to do with it

Yeah Triaxx, you are so right about cutting down ANY tree, rotten or not. When they hit the ground limbs can break off and go flying erratically anywhere. My husband's grandfather was killed this way and my husband's father sustained serious brain injury this way.

So today, we had to fell two huge trees in order to take down the rotten one, due to the way they snagged up on each other. Good job we did - they were both as rotten as could be.

As usual in our neighborhood, one person starts a project and the whole street turns out to help. It was a great day! We closed the street twice to drop the trees, did breakfast runs to McDonalds for the workers, and enjoyed a beer or two afterward together. Heavy machinery was provided so we had all the right tools for the job.

The quote received by our immediate neighbor yesterday, just for taking out the top 30 feet of the tree - no disposal - was $1500 :eek The neighborhood got the whole job done - two huge trees, all disposed of - $120!

Enjoy the photos of today's fun and teamwork I will upload some videos I took of the tipping trees too.

Funny thing happened after we tipped one tree and it was totally laying across the road, blocking the whole street (you'll see from the photos/videos how obvious that was!) when up comes a couple of cyclists. I had to stop them trying to go any further for their safety, as when you buck the boughs they can often spring back as the main stump shifts position and fly up. They asked me "What are they doing?", so I looked across as this huge tree in the middle of the road and said "I think they are taking a tree down..what do you reckon?" to which they replied (and you will move this Adryn) "Oh really?" roflmao Some people...I just replied "I guess.... " and laughed at them.

 

LOL Lev @cyclists rolleyes:-D. Ooh, look at those 24" bars on the chainsaws! Nice to see the neighbourhood get together to get the job done though most people don't have loggers and large shovels at their beck and call.

 

Felling a tree like that could have cost up to $1000 in California.

I am also glad Lev was not hurt.

 

Ya about the cost, I had several quotes for taking down 18 large, straight 80 foot pines, the cheapest being $100/per,and we would have had to deal with these huge trees and the limbed branches. Luckily a friend heard that a mutual acquaintance was looking for a lot of pine to finish his house off. In the end he brought his large shovel and a logger, took everything away and threw in the removal of a very old marker pine which was really rotten, all for the trade of the pine wood.

 

Can diseased trees be burned? (firewood)

 

Yes, we are using it as firewood between us. You can burn any tree providing it is seasoned. How much heat different wood types kick out is another matter.

Trying to upload videos on to my blog of the felling for you all to see but it is resisting right now

 

Just don't burn pines, the smoke is toxic.

Agreed, if we have the equipment though, we try and remove most of the branches that can kill like that. I once saw a backhoe attachment custom built to grab the limb and use a hydraulic chainsaw to remove the limb. Completely amazing to watch work.

 

LOL..that's what chimneys are for No smoke is favorable

 

Wow...just popped on to see what was happening...glad to see you're ok Lev!!

 

FINALLY..and with much ado.......I bring you VIDEOS :-D

Enjoy http://levlish.blogspot.com/

 

Timmmmmmmmberrrrrrrr.

 

One more of the bicyclist conversation added :-D

She goes on to ask me "What's on the other side?"......ohhhh how I wish I had been more quick thinking...I could have had so much fun with that one! "I don't know...I've heard voices but we haven't seen any life forms yet ma'am".

 

I was assuming the shovel was going to be used to ensure the direction the trees took. I do see that hubby is darn good with the wedges. Nice vids. You never did say what type the trees were, just curious.

 

It reminds me of when I was younger. Imagine my father coming down the stairs after waking up in the morning and me asking him if he was supposed to have a big tree limb in the back of his truck I thought he might have been hauling the limb, but no. He ended up with a round indention in the top of his cab. Luckily we were able to do all the repair work ourselves.

 

Nice video Lev. Like the college GPA vs tax story on your site as well.:-D

 

We had a truck doing that part of the job augie, hooked up to some half-inch cable We had another semi doing the hauling away. The trees were two different types of maple.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/Atkin/2008%20October/IMG_2829.jpg

This is the other tree we took down so we could fell the rotten one that dropped a limb. Good job we did, huh?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/Atkin/2008%20October/IMG_2840.jpg

 

And from that cut, you'd never have known it was rotted. Good thing you had to drop it. Might want to have the other trees on the block inspected.

 

Ahh, thanks Lev. I thought they were maples but wasn't sure. Man, those suckers were huge! Anyways, lots of great wood for next year. You guys going to have a block splitting party too? Maple's about the best for BTU/cord. I agree with Triaxx, a simple core sampling will reveal if a tree is rotting inside. I'm no arborist but I've seen one working.:-D

 

Plenty of firewood, indeed Lev. Good job on the big, old trees removal.

I'm still stacked out with branches and trunks at the front of my place, after felling of a tree during, (our) winter. Got rid of about half of it. Pity I don't have a fire, and my B.B.Q. can only burn so much, lol.

 

We certainly need a splitting party. I think Chad (neighbor) is going to bring one home from work. Way to much for an axe.

Yeah the cut was clean, but we knew it was rotten before we felled it. It had lost large limbs before and looked like it was suffering from the outside some.

 

A) You don't split wood with an Axe. Use a maul or Sledgehammer and wedges. City people.

B) Remember, one person running the splitter at a time. Otherwise bad things happen. When I use it, I have a ten foot rule. I'm the only one allowed within ten feet of the splitter. Chips happen.

 

That was my kitchen rules when my kids were little LOL

 

Hahahaha!. My favourite time for hand splitting was when it was at least -15F, they just mostly flew apart with a 6lb. maul!

 

There's a street a few blocks over that lost most of its older trees a couple years ago to rot - odd that it seems to happen to so many of them at once, unless they were all about the same age.

 

You use an axe...sheeeesh...I'm married to a logger of 30 years in the trade. Do I have to teach you everything? Wedges are for taking the trees down in the desired direction. rolleyes

Sledgehammer roflmao

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splitting_maul

And a splitting wedge is similar, but three or four sided, and much thicker than an axe. Technically you can use the backside of a maul to hit the wedge, but I prefer the hammer.

Logging and making firewood are two different balls of wax.