Holy Cow!

[Foragefarmer]

A thunderstorm came through at 4:30. I had just gotten home. There was some wind with the storm but nothing crazy. Well I was just watching tv at 6:00 and there was a bang and rumble. So I went looking around out the windows, and one of the oaks in front of my house has come down. Thankfully straight away from the house. And thankfully not one of the bigger white oaks. It will get cut up in the next few days but it is bittersweet firewood. If the butt log is good maybe I will get it milled.

There was just a breeze blowing at the time and it didn't touch any of the other trees. Crazy!

 

[ansehnlich1]

Oh my, and to think you ran around under that bad boy, mowin the grass etc......

 

[bogydave]

Lucky it blew
the right wind direction.

I'd be checking the others for damage, I've seen them go over
with a root ball but to break there, must be some insect of root damage.
Next time, the wind may be wrong

 

[Paulywalnut]

You sure have a nice straight run there to mill.
Get some nice board feet out of that.

 

[ScotO]

Wow, that is a big tree.....looks like a clean snap at the rooball, too....
Glad you weren't under it's wake, and no one got hurt.

 

[osagebow]

Wow - Hope the rest are sound.

 

[hobbyheater]

It would be interesting to know how far the rot extends up the trunk when you are finished?

 

[Hills Hoard]

kick ass!! Fell in the right direction!

 

[midwestcoast]

Well, sorry you lost that nice tree. Lessee now. No damage to structures or other trees. No giant root ball divet. Not even much stump to deal with. I'd say that's about a perfect drop.
One in our neighborhood broke off just like that in the ~70 mph gust front that came with Monday's storm. No damage at this place despite some trees getting near their expiration date. At least half the homes here are still out of power. Ours barely flickered.

 

[Locust Post]

A few trees around here came down yesterday evening. I surprized myself and the wife and did not go looking for firewood. Just can't go there right now. Our power was out from 6 yesterday evening until about 4 a.m.

 

[Foragefarmer]

I was surprised that it came down over an hour after the storm came through.

After reading some of the posts and thinking back, this tree has had some woody mushroom growth around the base the last couple of years. None of the other trees have had this.

 

[Foragefarmer]

My GF's response after I sent her a pic was, "wow....more firewood!" and the "how much wood do you think is in that tree?" I guess I have her trained up; on wood at least!

 

[lukem]

That tree was far from healthy to break there. At least you won't have much of a stump to deal with.

 

[Applesister]

What a beautiful place, lucky you, and a grove of white oaks in your front yard! There arent many white oaks at the local Nurseries. Too bad about the loss of one of them. God smiled on you when he dropped it the way he did.
I agree with the others on the root rot. It looked that way to me too. The crown looked healthy though.
I was at the highest elevation on my property one day and heavy winds came thru and it was the weirdest sensation. Trees sway quite a bit in the wind. But I felt as if I was swaying and the trees were standing still.

 

[Foragefarmer]

Thanks Applesister for the kind words.

Since it has been hot we have been doing early starts at work. Not to hot today so I started into the oak when I got home. As you can see the punky wood didn't go to far up the tree, but then I hit purple wood! Which in my book means metal so I split a couple of the rounds and I found a HORSE SHOE!





Well anyway I got a good start on the tree. Sadly the wood got punky again so no lumber from this tree.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Good that it is down and glad you got some firewood. Even better, you didn't hit the horseshoe with the saw!

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

How does that happen?

 

[Foragefarmer]

Good that it is down and glad you got some firewood. Even better, you didn't hit the horseshoe with the saw!

I know huh? I was talking about the possibility of hitting a fence staple the other day. Well a horse shoe would be a heck of a fence staple to hit.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

People find all sorts of junk in trees. We once found an old plow point! I've seen bikes in trees and all sorts of junk. When we had a bunch of pines cut, I pointed out one tree to the crew and said to not cut it. Why? Because there are several tree steps screwed into the tree and have grown right into it. That would have raised all sorts of problems.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I know huh? I was talking about the possibility of hitting a fence staple the other day. Well a horse shoe would be a heck of a fence staple to hit.

Ya, I was thinking about that post you made.

 

[Foragefarmer]

How does that happen?

Best I can guess; since it is bent over, is that it was nailed to the tree and used as a hook to hold stuff. The growth rings are really tight on the tree so it has been in there for a long time. I don't remember it when I was a child in the 70's.

 

[ansehnlich1]

haha, that horseshoe was good luck, without that, the tree probably wouldn't have fallen at all, let alone in the right direction

 

[PapaDave]

Ya got a free horseshoe out of it.
Isn't that lucky, or something?