Today's Scrounge with Pics

[Oregon Bigfoot]

I passed on two Sweet Gum trees recently dropped in my neighborhood, based upon your input if you read my last post from last night. Those sound like a nightmare to split without hydraulics. My buddy who had a wood splitter died last month, and I just don't have the heart to ask his wife or sons if I can borrow his wood splitter any more.

After a 2 hour delay from a flat tire in my car, I got started cutting at the late time of 2:30 PM. Instead I went for the original plan to cut down a standing dead Douglas Fir. I estimated it at 100' tall, but after falling the tree, it was more like 75' tall. It was a bit windy, with the wind going in the direction of the fall, which was a great plus. While falling, the tree made a counter clockwise spin on the stump, and fell about 15 degrees farther to the right then planned. I was trying to fall it to the left of a larger Douglas Fir, but it managed to fall to the right of it. Of course, it got caught in a Big Leaf Maple tree. I had to drag the stump backward about 20 feet with my truck and chains before it came free of the maple tree. You can see the mud tracks the stump made in the second picture.

Picture one is the standing dead tree before falling.

Picture two is the tree bucked. Notice where my chainsaw is, that's the original location of the standing tree, and you can see the distance I drug the stump before the tree finally loosened out of the maple tree and fell.

Picture three is a live Douglas Fir tree about 60' tall I fell. I'm gradually thinning my friends overgrown Christmas trees, to allow for better tree growth and health of the remaining trees.

Picture four didn't happen, because the batteries in the camera died. I would have taken a picture of another overgrown Christmas tree I fell. This tree had the top break off at some time in the past, so the tree was about 10' shorter than it should have been.

It was getting dark, and quit about 5 PM, so I didn't have time to gather the wood. I'll get it at another time, possibly this Monday if the weather cooperates. We have some snow in the forecast here in western Oregon.

 

[clemsonfor]

Yea unless that sweet gum is less than say 8"s there is no way to split it by hand! NO WAY. You can however rip it in half with your chain saw and then split the hunks once small enough or rip them into firewood. I did this with 2 one year when i was in grad school and had way more time than money. I heated the trailer almost entirely with a fireplaice

With hydraulics its no problem.

 

[bogydave]

Glad you fell it close to where you intended. wind & dead trees make it more tricky.
By the middle pic, the hinge looks not even, that may be part of why it moved some & fell a little off your aim.
You had a pretty tight window to drop it in

Glad all OK., Good job.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

After a 2 hour delay from a flat tire in my car, I got started cutting at the late time of 2:30 PM. Instead I went for the original plan to cut down a standing dead Douglas Fir. I estimated it at 100' tall, but after falling the tree, it was more like 75' tall. It was a bit windy, with the wind going in the direction of the fall, which was a great plus. While falling, the tree made a counter clockwise spin on the stump, and fell about 15 degrees farther to the right then planned. I was trying to fall it to the left of a larger Douglas Fir, but it managed to fall to the right of it. Of course, it got caught in a Big Leaf Maple tree. I had to drag the stump backward about 20 feet with my truck and chains before it came free of the maple tree. You can see the mud tracks the stump made in the second picture.

The reason that tree did a spin on you is that you cut the hinge all the way through so it became a free falling tree. Sometimes you can cut like that and get away with it but it's not too highly recommended. Leave the hinge and if you've notched it right, it will fall where you want it to fall.

 

[Oregon Bigfoot]

Yep, operator error! :gulp: As Murphy's Law came to visit, the wind became quite gusty about half way through the final cut. I was looking up a little too long watching the trees to see how the gusts were affecting them, and trying to get a feel of the wind direction, and trying to buy time for the gust to stop. I had a falling wedge in there to help the tree not go backwards. But, yes sir, I cut through the right side of the hinge a bit. The wind gust took the tree over a bit prematurely, when the spin happened.

We got about 1/2" of snow overnight, but it's gone now.

 

[WoodpileOCD]

After a 2 hour delay from a flat tire in my car, I got started cutting at the late time of 2:30 PM. Instead I went for the original plan to cut down a standing dead Douglas Fir. I estimated it at 100' tall, but after falling the tree, it was more like 75' tall. It was a bit windy, with the wind going in the direction of the fall, which was a great plus. While falling, the tree made a counter clockwise spin on the stump, and fell about 15 degrees farther to the right then planned. I was trying to fall it to the left of a larger Douglas Fir, but it managed to fall to the right of it. Of course, it got caught in a Big Leaf Maple tree. I had to drag the stump backward about 20 feet with my truck and chains before it came free of the maple tree. You can see the mud tracks the stump made in the second picture.

The reason that tree did a spin on you is that you cut the hinge all the way through so it became a free falling tree. Sometimes you can cut like that and get away with it but it's not too highly recommended. Leave the hinge and if you've notched it right, it will fall where you want it to fall.

Good eye Dennis :roll:

 

[bogydave]

After a 2 hour delay from a flat tire in my car, I got started cutting at the late time of 2:30 PM. Instead I went for the original plan to cut down a standing dead Douglas Fir. I estimated it at 100' tall, but after falling the tree, it was more like 75' tall. It was a bit windy, with the wind going in the direction of the fall, which was a great plus. While falling, the tree made a counter clockwise spin on the stump, and fell about 15 degrees farther to the right then planned. I was trying to fall it to the left of a larger Douglas Fir, but it managed to fall to the right of it. Of course, it got caught in a Big Leaf Maple tree. I had to drag the stump backward about 20 feet with my truck and chains before it came free of the maple tree. You can see the mud tracks the stump made in the second picture.

The reason that tree did a spin on you is that you cut the hinge all the way through so it became a free falling tree. Sometimes you can cut like that and get away with it but it's not too highly recommended. Leave the hinge and if you've notched it right, it will fall where you want it to fall.

Good eye Dennis :roll:

I think if you look to the right of the stump, you'll see the cut off stump with the hinge.
It doesn't look like it was cut with no hinge
Middle picture show the hinge & wedge & back by the saw is where he stopped after cutting the stump off.

 

[Oregon Bigfoot]

The first and second pic are the tree that I had a hinge, but cut a bit too much of the hinge on the right of the cut. The third pic, that is a different tree that fell perfectly, and yes bogydave, you see the hinge cut off. I cut the wood to 16" and cut the hinge side off to get the stump to 16".

You guys have 20/20 vision trained eyes!

 

[Oregon Bigfoot]

I gathered the wood today. Here's the finished product on the truck. It's not quite a full truck load, but about 90% of a truck load and probably right at 1/2 a cord. It started snowing about 5 minutes before I took the picture, if you look closely you will see some snow flakes. It's time to rest my back now.

 

[bogydave]

Perfect timing.
Nice load. Good job! You earned a rest
PS: the maul is upside down for the picture

 

[Oregon Bigfoot]

We had a couple inches of snow, then freezing rain/ice, hurricane force winds, and 7.5+" of rain with flooding rivers between the Jan 16 and today, what a week in the Pacific Northwest! I found a break between storms to split and stack. You guys in the East should be getting our weather any time.

And the finished product...

 

[bogydave]

Looks like another laser, 4' level & chalk line job of stacking.
Nice cross stacks on the ends too.
No snow, green grass & over a cord of fire wood stacked perfect & seasoning, another Great Day in the PNW