Have my local arborist coming out to fell a large cottonwood for me (118" circumference, or about 40" DBH) sometime next week. Not asking him to limb it or anything else to keep things reasonable. Main reason I'm taking it down is that it's keeping a hickory and some conifers in my yard from growing properly. Plus, I hate cottonwoods, view this as managing the forest a bit, and my wife loves all trees. So, best bet is to make the most of it and process it into firewood. But this one is larger than I've ever dealt with before. Generally, I'm thinking of renting a splitter, and I can cut up a lot of it with my chainsaw. But it's also rather clear to me that I may need a new chainsaw, some way to roll a log that size, etc. Not looking to get too crazy and buy a big tractor or anything, but looking for some ideas on how to do this safely and relatively inexpensively. Not afraid of manual labor, but don't want to kill my back, either.
Worst case, I can do whatever I need by myself, and when I'm down to the large trunk, have a neighbor out with his monster tractor to assist. Nothing against that if I need, but if there's a way to do it on my own, I'd like to try.
Thanks in advance,
John
Worst case, I can do whatever I need by myself, and when I'm down to the large trunk, have a neighbor out with his monster tractor to assist. Nothing against that if I need, but if there's a way to do it on my own, I'd like to try.
Thanks in advance,
John