Saying goodbye to this bad boy tomorrow.

[Michael Weber]

Hackberry. Close to 100 feet tall it’s been providing shade and wildlife refuge for generations in my side yard. I suspect it was here before my house built in 1925 and it has the remains of a slowly rotting second one beside it. I have been hoping for years that it leaned because it grew that way due to having another growing within a few feet, and would remain stable. The lean has increased from 8 to 11 degrees in the last couple of years. It’s huge. I’m going to miss it shading my house in the summer. I had its crown pretty drastically thinned a couple of years ago to reduce wind load. We have tornadoes here. Still a bunch of dead and decaying limbs and bits and pieces fall to the ground regularly.
I still wouldn’t do it if there were not a two story former carriage house, now a garage in its path if it fell. I have seen what a century old tree does to a house if it falls on it. I’m 😔. I hope to have the opportunity to count growth rings.

[Todd Trebuna]

Your sadness at cutting down this fine tree, lends itself well to your character. It is a magnificent tree and if it had a consciousness, I think it would be honored that you take no joy from removing it but are doing so, mercifully, humbly and thoughtfully. The circle of life rules and each day we get a little older and a little further along. Our bark withers, decays and inside we age. I hope that when my time comes and I am cut down, my caretakers will do so with as much respect that you are showing here. Best wishes for a safe and thoughtful removal. hoping that some part of it can be salvaged or preserved as a memorial to the fine , healthy, strong tree that this used to be.
All my best,

Todd

[Jim Becker]

I unfortunately have had to share your sadness with tree removal recently, including a couple of "yuge" ash near the house that had died from da bug and a crabapple in front of our home. The two former were definitely a thread to the structure as a very large percentage of the dead ash on our property have been felled by wind. That Hackberry has probably seen a thing or three over the years and I hope you find some ways to use some portions of it in memorial for turning or other things you can manage.

[Jon Grider]

I can relate to your story too. In 2011, a straight line wind storm came through our yard and uprooted many red and white oaks and a pignut hickory that were very old. The largest white oak was 40 + " in diameter. I hired a sawyer with a Woodmizer for a day and together we cut, well he cut, I stacked about 2000+bd. ft. of lumber. I also had about 8 cords of firewood. Not a total waste of the beautiful trees, but our yard ambience changed drastically. We are still grateful no one was hurt, my wife had minutes before closed the windows on the 3 season porch which was then crushed by a hickory.

[Mike Henderson]

This is a bit different of a story, but when my wife and I were living in Florida we had two pine trees in front of out house. I wanted to remove them and plant a live oak but my wife didn't want to take them down.

Then one day it was raining hard - as it does in Florida - and there was a tremendous BANG. Lighting struck one of the pine trees and killed it. After we removed it, the one remaining tree looked a bit odd so we took it out and put in a live oak.

As I told my wife, God was on my side.

Mike

[I went to Google maps and got a picture of the house. The live oak has grown quite a bit.]
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[John K Jordan]

...hoping that some part of it can be salvaged or preserved as a memorial to the fine , healthy, strong tree that this used to be.
...

If there is not enough to saw into lumber you might cut some chunks for woodturning blanks. If you don't turn wood yourself you might be able to find someone near who will make something for you. (Bunch of woodturners in Ky!) Some people don't like working with hackberry but I got some once that was beautiful near the center.

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(I thought it was elm when I got the wood but was told later by a credible person that it was hackberry)

I have a big hackberry close to my shop, almost 40" in diameter, that started to show signs of decay about 5 years ago, now it's got a widening strip of decay running up one side of the trunk. Getting worse every year, needs to be taken down this year. It's going to be so sad to see it go although we have no shortage of trees. It's the one marked in this drone shot:

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Sure wish I had a bucket truck.

JKJ

[Brian Elfert]

My previous house had a giant cottonwood tree that provided a lot of shade. The problem was it was rotten in the center and eventually had to come down. It really changed the character of the yard when it came down.

[Doug Dawson]

The wild hackberry is a very fast growing tree, with an average lifespan of maybe 30 years, towards the end of which it bestows gifts on the unsuspecting. :^/

[Aaron Rosenthal]

Oh, i feel your pain.
My house was built in 1931. We bought it in 1950, and our apple tree was there when we moved in.
That tree meant "home" to me while I traveled the world. When we came back, we got the house, but the tree has been dying over the last few years.
Last week it finally just gave up it's ghost and literally fell over.
I'll clean it out and replace it within a month.

[Erik Loza]

Wow, I didn't realize they could get that big. Ours (Central TX) seem to top out at about the size of a mulberry and they're generally viewed as a trash tree. Hope you share some pics of projects from it.

Erik

[Michael Weber]

So it begins.

[Michael Weber]

It’s mostly gone except the big trunk. A job for Saturday. And removal, stump grinding and clean up. They were the low bid but I they certainly seemed to know what they were doing. My wife was disappointed in how they took the tree down from top to bottom. She expected people to show up with axes and just drop the whole thing. .450121450123450122450120

[Myk Rian]

My wife was disappointed in how they took the tree down from top to bottom. She expected people to show up with axes and just drop the whole thing.
:rolleyes: Women, eh. Ya gotta love em, and ya damned well better respect em.

[Michael Weber]

Last of the crown coming down.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U4-kPKghG5E

[Michael Weber]

:rolleyes: Women, eh. Ya gotta love em, and ya damned well better respect em. your preaching to the choir Myk ��

[John K Jordan]

... My wife was disappointed in how they took the tree down from top to bottom. She expected people to show up with axes and just drop the whole thing...

She can come watch the next time I take one down like this. This pine was about 30" in diameter at the base. I first dug a 6' wide hole all around first to cut the roots from the ground.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTx7IDZ8sQQ

Still wish I had a bucket truck! I know a guy who bought a used one for about $6000.

JKJ

[Jim Koepke]

They were the low bid but I they certainly seemed to know what they were doing.

Often the company making the low bid does so because they are the ones knowing what the job requires with the personnel and equipment to do the job.

jtk

[Doug Dawson]

Often the company making the low bid does so because they are the ones knowing what the job requires with the personnel and equipment to do the job.
They also might be doing so because they’re not paying for insurance, workmen’s comp, etc. In which case _you_ are. :(

[Michael Weber]

In fairness I didn’t say I was dealing with shylocks. All bids were close and all were long term local businesses, bonded and insured and with good references.

[Michael Weber]

It was like a sponge at the base. I could almost push my finger in. Full of water.

[Myk Rian]

Often the company making the low bid does so because they are the ones knowing what the job requires with the personnel and equipment to do the job.
My self and our HOA have used a company that's about $200 more than lowest.
A few years ago they took down a 3' dogwood on the park beach.. When done, you wouldn't know they were around.

2 years ago the HOA hired our lawn cutters to remove a broken trunk on a huge water willow or whatever it is. They used a wheeled bobcat to break the trunk off, stripping the bark to the ground, then cutting it up.
They destroyed the middle third of the park with the bobcat, and just totally (bad word) everything up.
All because they SAVED $200. The board knows I'm ticked off about it. I go for my walks there every day.

[Dave Zellers]

A few years ago they took down a 3' dogwood on the park beach.

Well geeze Myk, I could have taken down a 3' dogwood with my pocket knife.

I know, I know, I'm sorry. :D

[Jim Becker]

A few years ago they took down a 3' dogwood on the park beach.. .

I would have loved to have seen that tree...3' diameter of that particular species must have been a sight to behold. Around here, it's rare for dogwood to be over 6-8" and that's a very old tree.

[John K Jordan]

I would have loved to have seen that tree...3' diameter of that particular species must have been a sight to behold. Around here, it's rare for dogwood to be over 6-8" and that's a very old tree.

Same here, although one out in open space can get bigger. Those in the woods grow taller and don't get very large trunks. I got a 1x12 from one from a neighbor's yard. I still have quite a bit of that wood, drying now since 2006.

I have two flowering dogwood trees on my property that are 12" or larger and several a little smaller, but I have no intention of cutting them! (unless they die)

I have trouble imagining one 36" in diameter.

[Alex Zeller]

She can come watch the next time I take one down like this. This pine was about 30" in diameter at the base. I first dug a 6' wide hole all around first to cut the roots from the ground.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTx7IDZ8sQQ

Still wish I had a bucket truck! I know a guy who bought a used one for about $6000.

JKJ

I've done the same with my backhoe. But stay safe and make sure there's nothing dead or broken in the canopy. Otherwise it can come down on top of you.

My neighbor had a cottonwood that must have been at least 6' in diameter taken down. All but the outer 6" was nothing but rot. It was right up against their house and a limb broke off hitting it so it had to come down. It's always a tragic event when something that has been around that long has come to the end of it's life.

[John K Jordan]

I've done the same with my backhoe. But stay safe and make sure there's nothing dead or broken in the canopy. Otherwise it can come down on top of you.
...

I used to use my wheeled skid steer to push trees over but couldn't push as high as I can with the excavator, and of course digging around the roots makes a mess. One nice thing about the skid steer was the extremely strong roof in case of a big falling limb. The excavator puts you further back away from the tree but you still have to be careful - there are a few dead pines on one trail I'm afraid to touch; I'll just wait until they fall. Dead limbs on pine trees are one reason I don't like to drop them with a chainsaw.

A neighbor here was standing two trees away when his son was dropping a tree. Part of that tree jostled the next tree which knocked a widowmaker out of the third tree. That branch put the guy on the ground and sent him to the hospital for a bunch of stitches in his top of his head.

I always wear a hard hat, of course, but that's not going to help with something big enough to break your neck. Many of us probably know or know of someone who was killed in a tree-cutting incident. When I started chainsawing I bought the book "The Good Woodcutters Guide" by Dave Johnson. (https://www.amazon.com/Good-Woodcutters-Guide-Woodlots-Portable/dp/1890132152) He describes lots of ways to get hurt or killed when felling trees. I did similar research when I bought my tractor and learned some surprising ways to die. Good stuff to know - you can't protect against something you can't imagine.

Even cleaning up fallen trees can be dangerous. Look at the size of this oak that came down across my fence behind the barn. I counted over 100 years of rings in a branch. A big part of the tree was held up by one small 8" sprung limb that jammed into the ground. I thought long and hard about how to clean up this one.

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JKJ