The BIG Oak

Alright, I've seen the monster pines and the big trees Sandy took down.

How's this one? At least I saw it go down. I'd say it's 3' in diameter, maybe more. The biggest, oldest tree in the property. So sad. At least I saw it go down. Kind of amazing in a car crash sort of way.



You want it? You're welcome to have it right now. We're in Northern New Jersey. Only one hitch. It's lying on top of an electric pole, a transformer, and the cables leading to them. Probably ok though, right?

So assuming there are no takers, what do you suggest we do once PSE&G gets to it? I'm thinking they will carve up just enough to get the cables back up (why don't they put em underground… beats me?).

But what then? Would love to see this milled, but it's at the bottom of my property which means the bottom of a steep hill, no road access. Probably going to have to add it to my growing wood pile.

Any ideas on how to tackle a tree that big with my Husky 435? I have an 18" blade, but how much good is that going to do me?

Hi all, thanks for the encouragement.

PSE&G came and put up a new pole. They cut up some of the upper parts of the tree to get to the site. I took the opportunity to watch their chainsaw operator take on the limbs and asked him a few questions. In the meantime, my Husky 635 fried somehow and is unable to start. I wound up getting a Stihl 290 from a servicing dealer within walking distance. I'll fix the other saw when service shops have time to look at it and will either eBay it or keep it as a backup. The Stihl is a dream. At this stage, I've managed to saw up much of the upper section of the tree as well as some other things it took down.

Did I mention how happy we were to have the Morso fireplace insert we put in last year after the last power outage? We took the old smoke dragon Leyden down to the lower fireplace (our hillside house is inverted…kids bedrooms below, ours and living room above) for events like this. With the two going, we never got below 62 in a house that had no heat whatsoever for ten days, the majority of which were in the 30s at night and no more than 50s during the day. I made sure the smoke dragon was stoked hot so it wouldn't build up creosote. It'll probably get used a couple of more times this year max. It was a big difference in smoke output and wood consumption between the Morso 5660 and the Leyden though.

I'm thinking of getting a two man cross cut saw for the biggest section of the trunk though. If it's not rotten, it could make awesome table tops.

The pole raising is below.

Nope, not much forward thinking. I'll look into the 20" bar. Thanks for the tip.

Arrgh. Bad memory. It's not the 290. The 250.