Do any winter tree work lately ?
I am taking out a few hickory trees in my field (red and pig) to make room for more fruit trees and berry bushes. The wood will be used for firewood… hickory burns long and hot.
Felt good to work hard a few hours today.
My daughter took that first pic.
I have to drop these trees away from our electric service lines… thus taking all the limbs off that side… climbing with a safety harness and bow saw.
TNHunter
I hired a buddy of a buddy last year that used to work for Asplundh… he felled 25 trees about the size of the one you are in. A few 3X that size Could i have done it? IDK…he was doing some spiderman stuff and he is a Michelangelo with a chainsaw. Gladly paid him $1000. I think i would have gotten hurt myself…or caused alot of extra work.
I left all my piles for wildlife… things have happened in those brush piles that im happy about. Some owls and birds of prey have been working them along with some snakes… theres rabbits and chipmunks and all kinds of bird activity in them all the time. Better than Netflix.
I dropped a shagbark before it fell in my road… love to smoke me some bbq with it.
Good job on your skills… not my forte.
you definitely have a bigger pair than i do! id gladly pay a arborist to handle that sized tree. all with a bucksaw too.
Impressive! I am overcautious when it comes to cutting trees. I cut down a lot of trees at work, but we call in pros every winter for big and risky trees. I know the limits of my chainsaw ability. Dead ash trees are dangerous!
Years ago I watched a guy take down a big blue spruce in my neighbors yard. He climbed up like a monkey and dropped it in logs in maybe 15 minutes. Amazing what a pro can do.
You’re kidding me. I can’t believe you got even one tree felled for only $1k, much less 25!!! That’s an incredible price.
Yes big money in tree work… however in town i think he needs to be bonded and licensed and insured and all that… lots of stories of tree trimmers doing impossible jobs but then later sued for messing up someones yard etc.
I think he made $15/hr or something like that at Asplundh so he was happy and so was I.
The guys that cleared my property powerline right of way were all young bucks and did amazing work as well. That was all free. A couple of the guys asked if i needed any side work done… im sure they do well on the side as well.
The first house we bought… 1991 or so had a HUGE white oak tree between the house and road… and it already had a few dead limbs in the top.
As the years went on… more died and started falling with wind storms.
I used mostly deer hunting equipment… climbing treestand safety harness… and lag bolt tree climbing steps… went all the way to the top and took it down piece by piece. I had a small cheap chain saw then and about wore it out on that tree.
It forked into 3 main branches at around 20 ft… and i got a saw log out of all three of those. A friend at Church was a logger… he picked them up and sold them for me.
The stump was 6 ft across.
Loads and loads of firewood…
I was much younger then… about 30. Today 61.
I worked for a timber company a couple years between high school and college.
These 3 hickories i am taking down are between 18 and 22 inch diameter at the base… babies in comparison.
No more chainsaws for me and definitely no climbing.
My kids still need me.
No big deal for me. …as long as my feet always stay on the ground and there are no power line close and there is no house close and no fences.
You can’t get a major trim job done on one tree for that price around here… forget taking the whole tree down! We fell our thankfully.
@ribs1 … have to know your own personal limits. I would not encourage anyone to do more than they feel good about doing physically or skillfully.
As a life long deer hunter… i have spent thousands of hours 25-30 ft up in a tree. In the early years with no safety belt… but i did eventually add that.
Physically at 61… it still feels good to me to climb a tree, to work hard.
My job involves computers… technical stuff… sitting in an office… but I have a great love for being outside doing things i like… even cutting down trees.
Some play time with the new MS271 comin’ up !
@AndySmith … yes sir… and i have folks (friends and family) looking forward to some hickory firewood.
If it’s not too cold over Christmas break I may get some of that done. The way they are talking… we may have to stay inside by the fireplace.
My husband is an arborist. He does winter pruning and removals at work, and even rec climbs in the winter. He does gear reviews on his YouTube channel and dabbles in other tree climbing/pruning topics.
Edit: Sometimes removals for friends & fam make it on his channel. I was pretty mad when I saw the footage for this one - it was basically turning to dust already!
@alleyapples … watched the vid… he did a good job. I have never had to take one down that was that far gone… not that I had to climb to take down anyway. Looked like that oak had been dead for several years before he got to work it.
@TNHunter He called me after the work was done and said the tree was pretty gnarly, but I didn’t realize how bad it was until I saw him editing the footage. I can’t believe his uncle wasn’t more honest about the decay! The experience helped him set some better boundaries for friends/family asking for help with trees, though. I think what some folks don’t realize when they ask for this as a favor (instead of getting a quote/hiring out the job) is that he is just going to be one guy with basic equipment. When he turns down a tree he usually explains why (e.g. dead ash tree = super dangerous, as @ampersand said above!) and gives them an idea of what he thinks a fair quote for removal would be depending on their expectations for work quality and safety.
Definitely on this… All the Ash which have died on our property, I left alone until they fell on their own. Not keen on trying to cut 'em down, they tend to just “explode” seems like. Basically all gone now, the EAB were ruthless. Split and stacked or already burned most of 'em…
@wdingus … around dead ash and elm trees is said to be ideal locations to find morel mushrooms in the spring. Apple trees in old overgrown orchards are supposed to be a hot spot to.
I have very few ash or elm on my 30 acres and have found none dead yet. I see them more in lower elevations …creek and river bottoms.
EAB just showed up here 5 yrs ago. along the river there are already hundreds dying. its going to be interesting what replaces them when they die as there isnt much that likes to grow in such wet areas as ash. may be a erosion problem along our rivers as they flood every spring with snow melt. i remember it was bad in the mid 70’s when Dutch elm disease wiped out the elm that also used to dominate the river shorelines. since then the ash has filled in. im thinking balsam poplar will take over as it likes wet areas but is a weaker wood and will probably get damaged from the huge ice chunks that come downstream in late april.
Around here Sycamore really likes the wet river bottom areas… I tend to cut yellow poplar when they grow in a constantly wet area here, they’re bad to rot and fall. Don’t know much about balsam poplar though…
With the cold spell coming over the next few days, funny you should mention that… Was just remembering my grandfather talk about a freeze when he was young, layer of ice on a nearby river… Then a ton of rain and flooding. He talked about huge chunks of ice floating downstream and just shearing off tons of trees.
