The Tree is Down and...
...well, and I'm still alive. My estimate on the height of the tree I took out was pretty accurate, I thought 35-40 feet and it was actually 36 and 1/2 feet, but I was way off when it came to the actual size of it. The biggest limb may have weighted 350 pounds and I just never would have thought it from just looking at it from the ground.
In addition to miscalculating the difficulty of operating a chainsaw while standing on a ladder, I made a big-time rookie mistake. The plan had been to tie each of the two remaining major limbs to a rope attached to my Explorer's tow bar, just like we had done with the smallest of the three major limbs last week. That way we could direct the fall away from the power line that supplies my neighbors' house. First, I had to climb the ladder and clear the stump of a smaller limb that would have interfered with the direction I wanted the biggest one to fall.
You are supposed to start the chainsaw while you have it on the ground and held steady with a foot and your left hand. The thing started fine, but I had trouble keeping it going while climbing the ladder. After it stalled out a couple of times when I was half way up I looked at the directions (the shame) and adjusted the idle. Still, the damn thing stalled out on my way up. Against my better judgment, I braced the saw in the crook between the limbs and started it while all the way up on the ladder. I cleared the little stump easily and made the decision that while I was up there and the saw was running I would make the initial cuts on the limb and create a wedge on the side I wanted it to fall. I would then move the ladder and tie the limb off.
I made the horizontal cut in textbook style, one third of the way in. However, when I tried to make the angled cut up to meet it I undershot and came up behind it. To compensate I took another pass at the horizontal cut and made it a bit deeper. I then felt something shift in the tree and a moment later I heard it: the cracking of falling timber. The limb was slowly leaning, but not in the direction I wanted it to fall, but straight for the power line. I killed the saw and grabbed the limb, but with it's weight there was little I cloud do.
I yelled for Jackie to get out of the Explorer and throw me the rope. By that time the limb had made contact with the power line. For a moment I feared the line would snap, but I guess enough of the limb was still connected to the truck to carry some of it's weight. Jackie threw the rope to me, but it fell short. She gathered it up again and the next time she nailed it. I tied it off as quick as I could and then had Jackie give the Explorer some gas. The limb started to move, but because some of the branches were tangled up in the power line, instead of reversing direction it turned sideways, following the path of the line which was now drooping lower.
I had to act fast to get the weight off the power line so I made the final cut from were I was. Because of the direction the limb was now in once it was completely free of the trunk it swung back toward me on the way down, the thick end probably missing me by only inches. Amazingly, the only thing it took out on the way down was a couple of tulips in full bloom growing around the trunk of the oak tree that is next to the one I removed. What a rush.
I had to relax for a few minutes before taking on the the final limb, the one I was always the most worried about because it leaned the most toward the power line. Fortunately, it came down almost as planned.
In addition to miscalculating the difficulty of operating a chainsaw while standing on a ladder, I made a big-time rookie mistake. The plan had been to tie each of the two remaining major limbs to a rope attached to my Explorer's tow bar, just like we had done with the smallest of the three major limbs last week. That way we could direct the fall away from the power line that supplies my neighbors' house. First, I had to climb the ladder and clear the stump of a smaller limb that would have interfered with the direction I wanted the biggest one to fall.
You are supposed to start the chainsaw while you have it on the ground and held steady with a foot and your left hand. The thing started fine, but I had trouble keeping it going while climbing the ladder. After it stalled out a couple of times when I was half way up I looked at the directions (the shame) and adjusted the idle. Still, the damn thing stalled out on my way up. Against my better judgment, I braced the saw in the crook between the limbs and started it while all the way up on the ladder. I cleared the little stump easily and made the decision that while I was up there and the saw was running I would make the initial cuts on the limb and create a wedge on the side I wanted it to fall. I would then move the ladder and tie the limb off.
I made the horizontal cut in textbook style, one third of the way in. However, when I tried to make the angled cut up to meet it I undershot and came up behind it. To compensate I took another pass at the horizontal cut and made it a bit deeper. I then felt something shift in the tree and a moment later I heard it: the cracking of falling timber. The limb was slowly leaning, but not in the direction I wanted it to fall, but straight for the power line. I killed the saw and grabbed the limb, but with it's weight there was little I cloud do.
I yelled for Jackie to get out of the Explorer and throw me the rope. By that time the limb had made contact with the power line. For a moment I feared the line would snap, but I guess enough of the limb was still connected to the truck to carry some of it's weight. Jackie threw the rope to me, but it fell short. She gathered it up again and the next time she nailed it. I tied it off as quick as I could and then had Jackie give the Explorer some gas. The limb started to move, but because some of the branches were tangled up in the power line, instead of reversing direction it turned sideways, following the path of the line which was now drooping lower.
I had to act fast to get the weight off the power line so I made the final cut from were I was. Because of the direction the limb was now in once it was completely free of the trunk it swung back toward me on the way down, the thick end probably missing me by only inches. Amazingly, the only thing it took out on the way down was a couple of tulips in full bloom growing around the trunk of the oak tree that is next to the one I removed. What a rush.
I had to relax for a few minutes before taking on the the final limb, the one I was always the most worried about because it leaned the most toward the power line. Fortunately, it came down almost as planned.