How hard can it be to cut down a tree?

[Mr. Whippy]

Last winter ( the winter of 2013-2014) was a tough one.  Lots of ice and some heavy winds.  We had a lot of tree damage.  Downed trees, and trees stripped of most of their branches.  Most of that damage has been cleaned up but today,  I had to cut down a pine tree that has already been stripped of most of its branches.  How hard could it be?

It turns out, harder than I thought.  I was figuring 1/2 hour.  Wrong.  After cutting the hinge, I started cutting from the back side to drop it.  However, due to the placement of the remaining branches, it tipped back and pinched the chainsaw bar.  I really did not want it falling backward, for cleanup reasons. 

So, I rapped a chain around the stump of a large broken off branch.  Then, I ran a long rope from the chain to a stump of another tree that came down earlier this fall.  I didn't want to hook it to the tractor, so I pulled out the comealong.  After the first length of the come along, I was able to pull the chainsaw bar out. A couple more resets and I finally pulled it down.

1/2 hour quickly became 1 3/4 hours.

Downed tree


Stump for come along


Panoramic of the two

[Gareth]

Tree came down (in the end) and roughly where you wanted it.  Sounds like a win to me.

[gregozedobe]

I refuse to fell trees if there is any possibility they will fall on anything I don't want damaged.  Even a relatively slow gust of wind can undo my careful (by eye) calculations on where a tree will end up on the ground.  Sometimes I use my mobile power source (the Missus) on the end of a long rope to encourage falling in my preferred direction.  It's usually a lot easier just to fell in the direction the tree is already leaning.

[dks]

    Nate, You need an even bigger chainsaw     

[Weasel]

I've felled loads of trees and sometimes
They just need a pull. If they're leaning abit we climb up
And put a chain on and winch it with the landrover as Ive found with trees if
It can go wrong it will.

[DazMechanical]

I never get tired of watching this



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy1uq2Jc5Jk&app=desktop

[Syncop8r]

[Gareth]

Holy Smoke!  That's impressive.

[ducttapetech]

Wow!

Nate

[Mr. Whippy]

I've seen that video before and I'm still impressed. 

I have 2 more to take down.  One is a monster.  I'll probably tie it off BEFORE hand, but with little to no tension in the line.  The other can come down piecemeal.

[Weasel]

That's skilful