Taking down a big pine tree

[John K Jordan]

A big pine tree near my hay storage was in the way of loading and unloading hay. I had planned to cut it down for years. Although it was already leaning a bit in right direction the thought of cutting it down made me nervous. It was about 30" in diameter at the base.

Instead of cutting it with the chainsaw I used a method I've used many times on smaller trees since I got this machine - dig up around the roots and push it over with the excavator.



It fell exactly where I planned (hoped!), right between four trees on down the hill.



I had to dig down about 4' before I could budge it (with a spotter watching). The root ball was about 6' across. I used a narrow 1' bucket to more easily get between and under roots. Now I have to cut it up and get rid of the branches and stump and fill in the hole. I might saw the butt log into lumber. (Pine makes great shelving!)

Note: if anyone considers renting or using an excavator for this be very careful, just like chainsawing things can go disastrously wrong. Big dead limbs can break off and fall back towards you. The tree could start moving before you are ready. It could fall in the wrong direction. The tree could get hung up dangerously in another tree. If this one hadn't been leaning I would have used a long cable to apply force in the right direction - or hired a tree service to take it down!

JKJ

[Jim Matthews]

My neighbor across the street had an enormous (60 feet tall, nearly as wide) felled this way.

When I saw the operator hitch up his drawers make two relief cuts and fire up his backhoe I was sure it would make the local news. The backhoe was equipped with a large pincer, rather than a bucket.

It dropped right on his target stake, like a giant mallet.

They had it limbed, bucked and loaded in four hours.

The stake was buried so deep they just planted seed over it.

[Jim Koepke]

One of those would be nice to knock down a few dead alder trees in my yard. Not sure if their being downhill of our septic drain field has caused them to die young.

Alder is notorious for 'barber chairing' when being cut. One tree cutter told me it is third on the list of most dangerous trees to cut.

jtk

[Stan Calow]

Pine trees not doing well in my area for several years. I had one cut down this week in the backyard. Nothing in its way for 359 degrees. Yep. They dropped it directly on the one object it could hit - my bird feeder and bath.

[Bill Bukovec]

I don't trust pine trees. We had a 100 foot tall, 48" diameter fall one very calm night. Missed my truck by two feet. Turned out it was rotten at the base. I have a bunch of slabs drying for a future table.

[John K Jordan]

I don't trust pine trees. We had a 100 foot tall, 48" diameter fall one very calm night. Missed my truck by two feet. Turned out it was rotten at the base. I have a bunch of slabs drying for a future table.

The tree I removed was healthy, but in a stand a couple of 100 yards away I probably had over 50 virginia pines die over 5 years due to the pine beetle. Some were within striking distance of my horse pasture fence so I paid a tree guy to drop them. Many of them fell with the wind after the ground was wet, easy to clean up. Some remained standing and the top half or so broke and hit the ground - short enough to push over, not too scary. The scariest are those that remain standing, some 80+ ft high. Cutting, pushing, or even bumping one might cause the dead top to break out and drop thousands of pounds on your head. I'm hoping some of those fall in a storm so I can deal with them on the ground.

JKJ

[Jamie Buxton]

To the man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

[John K Jordan]

To the man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Sometimes it's hard to decide which hammer is the best to use. In leveling and re-sloping a ~25x150' area on a hill recently I ended up using three different hammers to pound the nails. Fortunately, the project was close enough to avoid having to load and haul the 2 to 4 ton tools.

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I love playing in the dirt!