Hi,
Whilst awaiting the studio to warm up allowing me to enjoy violin practice I thought I'd add my recent joyfull experiences.
We've recently suffered five heavy storms one of which damaged our 50' plus tall willow tree; this was a "Crack willow" with three seperate trunks; one of the trunks cracked badly making it lean dangerously so in the usual bad windy cold weather I was out again with the petrol chainsaw to make it safe by removing the trunk; logging it for a friends woodburner and shredding the brash for garden mulch. This kind of thing never happens during our two day long summer assuming we have such a long summer.
Fed up of this constant worry every time it becomes windy here on the valley side I've just spent five terrible days removing another seven trees four were trees at over 50' tall. The willow I classed as three trees it having three big trunks and a further tree having two thick trunks making eight in total. I was working on a steep slope in wet slippery conditions entirely on my own tackling these big trees; I'd bought two new heavy duty ropes to add to ropes I already had and I've got two 20" bar petrol chainsaws so I fuelled both these.
I started at the top of the rear garden working down the fence line using the lower trees as felling guides to prevent each tree falling over the fence into our neighbours rear garden; I lopped off the lower branches from each tree allowing the ladder to be erected and safely tied to the trunk then attached the pulling rope; these trees were vertical so much easier to fell; with the wedge cut and the back cut I kept pulling the rope until finally I reached the point when the tree let go and landed with a loud thud just where planned; as each tree was felled it was logged and the brash dragged down the garden piled safely out of the way; the logs too were brought down.
Now I reached the most difficult tree it being the now double trunked willow which was leaning over the fench into our neighbours garden; if I lost control of this I'd be in real trouble so I needed a method of getting it down on my own; in bed in the early hours I could think with great clarity and dreamt up a solution I think would be safe and would work?
Rope layout which worked a treat ensuring safety working on my own in full control.
Here's the solution which worked a treat. The willow was leaning right over the fence; there are more tall conifers to the middle of the garden; a mature oak tree to the bottom and right across the garden a huge spruce so I decided to use these to my advantage. I'd already successfully felled and cleared the trees up the fence line leaving stumps I could use as ground anchors so I had a choice of stumps; I chose a stump near the top of the garden giving a good distance then I lay a rope at the felling point but with an extra 6' of length then securely wrapped and tied the other end to the stump; back to the felling point I then pulled the rope tight and added a couple of turns of masking tape at the point I wanted the tree to fall this being the felling guide rope #1. Next I climbed the ladder then continued up the tree until the masking tape touched the trunk and at this point wrapped and tied the rope removing the slack from the rope. Next I secured rope #2 to the Oak tree but left this a bit slack knowing the tree was unlikely to fall uphill but I added this rope as a precaution in case gravity didn't work so now the tree couldn't fall up or down the garden. Finally I wrapped and tied the third rope as high up the tree as I could then secured the other end to the Spruce across the garden; my plan was to fell these two seperate triunks in turn at right angles to the fence in our garden but it didn't prove so easy.
I cut the wedge and back cut whilst trying to pull the tree over but as I neared cutting through at the hinge It became obvious I was much too weak to fight the weight of this tree which was supported on the three ropes so it now had to come down because it was now highly unsafe and just my usual luck the wind was increasing. Working quickly but safely up the tree I went again now with a fourth rope and between the Willow and Spuce I attached my 2,500 Lb winch. Feeling a lot happier now I winched the tree upright to lmost vertical but as I did so I kept adjusting the tension on rope #3 just in case the winch let go; with the tree upright I gave a huge tug on Rope #3 to be rewarded with the tree landing perfectly across the garden; with the Willow now down I was logging and carrying the heavy logs down the slippery garden in the rain; I forgot to mention I was being water cooled and mostly working in a stiff bitterly cold breeze which was blowing the wrong way. I then spent two miserable wet windy days shredding the brash; I covered the extension cable connections with a plastic bag also the shredder control buttons in order to keep the rain out; I was cold and wet shredding under the oak tree which was dropping water on me and my gloves were soaking but nothing was going to stop me now.
It was incredibly hard graft getting the logs down to our driveway ready to be collected and the mountain of brash shredded but I'm now delighted I stuck with it because these trees are no longer a problem in high wind; I'm truly sorry to see them go; all the trees apart from the willow were in good condition. for safety knowing how dangeerous the Crack Willow's are I bound the trunks before cutting; no way did I want to be killed if one split and hit me; the middle of the willow trunks were spongy so it's been a good decision to take it down.
Some of the willow logs; these sure were heavy.
My two toys both 20" bar. The Timberwolf has seen lots of action but this was the first big job for my new Hyundai; I fuelled both to save time in cutting.
The fence line now clear of all the big trees.
Here's the two remaining trunks of the willow the top one roped ready for felling. Our garden is a steep valley side and it was very wet and slippery.
Just a bit of the firewood.
One of the willow trunks perfectly felled as planned.
All trees down with stumps yet to be lowered then tidy up.
Still plenty of trees left but I might "Top" these as they too are becoming too tall.
I've watched many tree fail videos of guys jumping in with chainsaws many using their pick up trucks only to run into lots of dangereous trouble. I'm adding my story just for interest and I took advantage of solid anchor points with heavy duty roping but even so I was extremely careful to ensure my safety so please don't copy unless you have some tree felling experience; when one of these big trees comes down it won't take prisoners.
The studio should be nice and warm by now so I'll head in there to play with my violins; the rain and wind has finally let up now I'm indoors which is typical of my luck.
Kind regards, Colin.
Whilst awaiting the studio to warm up allowing me to enjoy violin practice I thought I'd add my recent joyfull experiences.
We've recently suffered five heavy storms one of which damaged our 50' plus tall willow tree; this was a "Crack willow" with three seperate trunks; one of the trunks cracked badly making it lean dangerously so in the usual bad windy cold weather I was out again with the petrol chainsaw to make it safe by removing the trunk; logging it for a friends woodburner and shredding the brash for garden mulch. This kind of thing never happens during our two day long summer assuming we have such a long summer.
Fed up of this constant worry every time it becomes windy here on the valley side I've just spent five terrible days removing another seven trees four were trees at over 50' tall. The willow I classed as three trees it having three big trunks and a further tree having two thick trunks making eight in total. I was working on a steep slope in wet slippery conditions entirely on my own tackling these big trees; I'd bought two new heavy duty ropes to add to ropes I already had and I've got two 20" bar petrol chainsaws so I fuelled both these.
I started at the top of the rear garden working down the fence line using the lower trees as felling guides to prevent each tree falling over the fence into our neighbours rear garden; I lopped off the lower branches from each tree allowing the ladder to be erected and safely tied to the trunk then attached the pulling rope; these trees were vertical so much easier to fell; with the wedge cut and the back cut I kept pulling the rope until finally I reached the point when the tree let go and landed with a loud thud just where planned; as each tree was felled it was logged and the brash dragged down the garden piled safely out of the way; the logs too were brought down.
Now I reached the most difficult tree it being the now double trunked willow which was leaning over the fench into our neighbours garden; if I lost control of this I'd be in real trouble so I needed a method of getting it down on my own; in bed in the early hours I could think with great clarity and dreamt up a solution I think would be safe and would work?
Rope layout which worked a treat ensuring safety working on my own in full control.
Here's the solution which worked a treat. The willow was leaning right over the fence; there are more tall conifers to the middle of the garden; a mature oak tree to the bottom and right across the garden a huge spruce so I decided to use these to my advantage. I'd already successfully felled and cleared the trees up the fence line leaving stumps I could use as ground anchors so I had a choice of stumps; I chose a stump near the top of the garden giving a good distance then I lay a rope at the felling point but with an extra 6' of length then securely wrapped and tied the other end to the stump; back to the felling point I then pulled the rope tight and added a couple of turns of masking tape at the point I wanted the tree to fall this being the felling guide rope #1. Next I climbed the ladder then continued up the tree until the masking tape touched the trunk and at this point wrapped and tied the rope removing the slack from the rope. Next I secured rope #2 to the Oak tree but left this a bit slack knowing the tree was unlikely to fall uphill but I added this rope as a precaution in case gravity didn't work so now the tree couldn't fall up or down the garden. Finally I wrapped and tied the third rope as high up the tree as I could then secured the other end to the Spruce across the garden; my plan was to fell these two seperate triunks in turn at right angles to the fence in our garden but it didn't prove so easy.
I cut the wedge and back cut whilst trying to pull the tree over but as I neared cutting through at the hinge It became obvious I was much too weak to fight the weight of this tree which was supported on the three ropes so it now had to come down because it was now highly unsafe and just my usual luck the wind was increasing. Working quickly but safely up the tree I went again now with a fourth rope and between the Willow and Spuce I attached my 2,500 Lb winch. Feeling a lot happier now I winched the tree upright to lmost vertical but as I did so I kept adjusting the tension on rope #3 just in case the winch let go; with the tree upright I gave a huge tug on Rope #3 to be rewarded with the tree landing perfectly across the garden; with the Willow now down I was logging and carrying the heavy logs down the slippery garden in the rain; I forgot to mention I was being water cooled and mostly working in a stiff bitterly cold breeze which was blowing the wrong way. I then spent two miserable wet windy days shredding the brash; I covered the extension cable connections with a plastic bag also the shredder control buttons in order to keep the rain out; I was cold and wet shredding under the oak tree which was dropping water on me and my gloves were soaking but nothing was going to stop me now.
It was incredibly hard graft getting the logs down to our driveway ready to be collected and the mountain of brash shredded but I'm now delighted I stuck with it because these trees are no longer a problem in high wind; I'm truly sorry to see them go; all the trees apart from the willow were in good condition. for safety knowing how dangeerous the Crack Willow's are I bound the trunks before cutting; no way did I want to be killed if one split and hit me; the middle of the willow trunks were spongy so it's been a good decision to take it down.
Some of the willow logs; these sure were heavy.
My two toys both 20" bar. The Timberwolf has seen lots of action but this was the first big job for my new Hyundai; I fuelled both to save time in cutting.
The fence line now clear of all the big trees.
Here's the two remaining trunks of the willow the top one roped ready for felling. Our garden is a steep valley side and it was very wet and slippery.
Just a bit of the firewood.
One of the willow trunks perfectly felled as planned.
All trees down with stumps yet to be lowered then tidy up.
Still plenty of trees left but I might "Top" these as they too are becoming too tall.
I've watched many tree fail videos of guys jumping in with chainsaws many using their pick up trucks only to run into lots of dangereous trouble. I'm adding my story just for interest and I took advantage of solid anchor points with heavy duty roping but even so I was extremely careful to ensure my safety so please don't copy unless you have some tree felling experience; when one of these big trees comes down it won't take prisoners.
The studio should be nice and warm by now so I'll head in there to play with my violins; the rain and wind has finally let up now I'm indoors which is typical of my luck.
Kind regards, Colin.
A regular thing I see on YouTube are saw benches being used without riving knife installed; when I made my 4hp sawbench I designed the riving knife to be permanenty installed; ideally it should also have a crown guard too.