Some tree work up at scout camp today....

[ScotO]

We have a great group of kids and parents in our local scout troop......just all around enjoy being around one another. Back over last fall, we noticed a big hollow tree just beside the camp's outdoor firepit that was threatening, and there was a big sugar maple just behind it that had some pretty bad damage to the trunk as well. This morning me and one of the other dads who is a great friend of mine went up and took those two trees down.....

I thought the one was possibly a cottonwood tree, the limbs and branches were up too high to be sure. Turns out it was a black gum. Tree was around 65-70' tall, with a leaning top that was threatening the cabin.




Started out bright and early, took some pics when we got there. Bill (my buddy) brought up a dump trailer full of clean slate to fill in a bad low spot in the camp road. He tailgated that load off and then I got the tree topped....I climbed up around 40' and topped that tree, it was hollow clear up there too!



We had a nice hearty breakfast after I got the top on the ground...some bacon, ham cubes, sausage links and patties, and even some farm fresh eggs from Bill's chicken coop. Great eats!



more pics on the next post....

 

[schlot]

Looks like a great day!

 

[ScotO]

I rigged the backleaning trunk of the gum on the way back down the tree with my 80' cable. It was really hollowed out on the bottom which wouldn't allow for a very good hinge, and I wanted that tree to fall in an exact spot so as not to damage the nice hemlocks all around it. It went without a hitch....

Some pics of the trunk and stump, and the cut rounds.....Bill will be using the wood in his outdoor furnace next winter....



After we got that all bucked up and loaded, I had a straight shot for the big sugar maple behind it to fall in a clearing amidst the hemlocks. We'll be going up next weekend with the kids on a campout, we'll buck and split up the sugar maple then. I had to get home by 3:00 or the wife was going to have my hide!!



Everything went just right, had a great time with some great campfire food.....

 

[PapaDave]

And you didn't even call me.
I coulda' been there in ......oh, 16 hours or so, I'm guessing.
I was wondering if you 2 would be eating all that grub, then saw the young man helping.
How is that gum for firewood? Whole bunch of BTUs missing from that one.

 

[ScotO]

And you didn't even call me.
I coulda' been there in ......oh, 16 hours or so, I'm guessing.
I was wondering if you 2 would be eating all that grub, then saw the young man helping.
How is that gum for firewood? Whole bunch of BTUs missing from that one.

lol, you're invited here anytime my friend....but it's a tad long of a drive....

I've never burned gum, so I'm not really sure. I DO know that it can be a B*TCH to split up, I don't think this one will be too bad as it's missing the heartwood on almost the entire tree. Bill will have to let me know how that goes when his son (in the pictures) gets to doing that chore this coming week....

we'll buck up and split the sugar maple next weekend when we stay up there. I'm letting Bill take most of that too. I've got lots of wood, and Bill does a TON of stuff for our local scout troop....he's a damn good guy. So I look at it kinda like payin' it forward......he's earned it.

Plus he did a damm good job of cooking that firepit breakfast this morning too!

 

[Woody Stover]

Nice work, and great documentation!

Classic dark-green, shiny Black Tupelo leaves, right there. Similar in look and shape to Shingle Oak but a bit wider. Here, the Crottenwood bark is usually a little chunkier than the Blackgum. There's quite a bit here, and I've never split or burned any yet. I don't think it's supposed to be quite as bad to split as the Sweetgum. That hollow one shouldn't be hard at all, though. I'll have to check the trunk if I cut one; Appears pretty healthy, just looking at it.

What was the whole cable setup? To a winch on the truck, or a block?

Looks like some delicious grubbage right there, bud! Guess you can't eat pancakes and Maple syrup every day.

Climbing would be cool. I might have to get in shape and try a little....and read my copy of 'The Fundamentals of General Tree Work' first. I saw a BL down the road I'd like to get but the top is gonna hit an ornamental. I might be a bit 'seasoned' to be going up at my age but if I get in shape, I might be able to go ten or fifteen feet. Maybe I should just go for the down Cherry right by the road over there, for now....

And yes, the harness makes your butt look a bit, uhhhh....robust. Oh yeah, that's right, you're a superbly conditioned climber; That's no doubt all muscle.

Looks like you guys had a great day, Scotty!

 

[ScotO]

Nice work, and great documentation!

Classic dark-green, shiny Black Tupelo leaves, right there. Similar in look and shape to Shingle Oak but a bit wider. Here, the Crottenwood bark is usually a little chunkier than the Blackgum. There's quite a bit here, and I've never split or burned any yet. I don't think it's supposed to be quite as bad to split as the Sweetgum. That hollow one shouldn't be hard at all, though. I'll have to check the trunk if I cut one; Appears pretty healthy, just looking at it.

What was the whole cable setup? To a winch on the truck, or a block?

Looks like some delicious grubbage right there, bud! Guess you can't eat pancakes and Maple syrup every day.

Climbing would be cool. I might have to get in shape and try a little....and read my copy of 'The Fundamentals of General Tree Work' first. I saw a BL down the road I'd like to get but the top is gonna hit an ornamental. I might be a bit 'seasoned' to be going up at my age but if I get in shape, I might be able to go ten or fifteen feet. Maybe I should just go for the down Cherry right by the road over there, for now....

And yes, the harness makes your butt look a bit, uhhhh....robust. Oh yeah, that's right, you're a superbly conditioned climber; That's no doubt all muscle.

Looks like you guys had a great day, Scotty!

Lol, thanks for the compliments on my butt, brother!

Seriously, get yourself a good harness, good climbing spikes (I use buckinghams with 3" gaffs), a good, easy to adjust "on the fly" lanyard (I made mine out of good climbing rope, a sling and an ascender), and practice.....

big thing too is to learn your knots.....lots of good knot lessons on the 'net, you have to be able to trust your knots with your life, literally.....

I enjoy climbing, it's tough work but it's also a rush to top a tree from 40-60ft off of the ground.......

The cable was hooked to my truck so I could keep pressure on that hollow tree until I had the back cut made, and I simply pulled the trunk right over exactly where I wanted it to go.....

Breakfast was fantastic, nothing like bacon, eggs, and sausage on a fire (we have a huge shagbark hickory up there, used the bark to help smoke the food while we cooked it), I could eat like that everyday, if that stuff wasn't so dang greasy and full of cholesterol!!

 

[Woody Stover]

big thing too is to learn your knots.....lots of good knot lessons on the 'net, you have to be able to trust your knots with your life, literally.....

Got Geoffrey Budworth 'Complete Book of Knots' but I imagine watching someone tie it in a video is probably easier to grasp.

 

[weatherguy]

Looks like a great breakfast, did you have some Lipitor after you ate?

 

[ScotO]

Looks like a great breakfast, did you have some Lipitor after you ate?

No, I did sweat most of it out, though!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Good work Scott and for sure it is good you got that one down. It is also great that it was you in that tree rather than me.

 

[ScotO]

Good work Scott and for sure it is good you got that one down. It is also great that it was you in that tree rather than me.

Bill got some videos of the day's festivities....he'll be sending them to me and I'll post them on the thread when I get them. One video of the tree being topped, another video of the trunk coming down, and a video of the sugar maple being dropped.....

I said "take some short videos of this stuff, or else my buddy Dennis is gonna be mad at me!!" He said "Dennis who?". I said "the King of Firewood, that's who!!"

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Thanks Scott. We'll be waiting for the videos and I hope you show them to the scouts too.

 

[jharkin]

Scotty man, you are making me remember scout camp... Miss those days. I was a JLTC counsellor and I taught knots/lashings/pioneering nd ran the quartermaster cabin. Reading your last few threads makes me want to go out fell some small trees and build a rope bridge to ford the river... Some river.


We need to have a hearth.com backwoods Olympics or somethin...


Oh and that breakfast is making me hungry. $&%&#%$ diet. $&%%#&$&$ you overkill!

 

[Shadow&Flame]

Another 'like' for the king of likes...keep up the good work and stay safe out there.

 

[fishingpol]

Good work there Scott. Enjoy this stuff while you can.

I'd be the scout dad handling the difficult task of furiously whittling away the marshmallow sticks for the campfire...

 

[thewoodlands]

We have a great group of kids and parents in our local scout troop......just all around enjoy being around one another. Back over last fall, we noticed a big hollow tree just beside the camp's outdoor firepit that was threatening, and there was a big sugar maple just behind it that had some pretty bad damage to the trunk as well. This morning me and one of the other dads who is a great friend of mine went up and took those two trees down.....

I thought the one was possibly a cottonwood tree, the limbs and branches were up too high to be sure. Turns out it was a black gum. Tree was around 65-70' tall, with a leaning top that was threatening the cabin.

View attachment 108720 View attachment 108722 View attachment 108723


Started out bright and early, took some pics when we got there. Bill (my buddy) brought up a dump trailer full of clean slate to fill in a bad low spot in the camp road. He tailgated that load off and then I got the tree topped....I climbed up around 40' and topped that tree, it was hollow clear up there too!

View attachment 108724 View attachment 108725

We had a nice hearty breakfast after I got the top on the ground...some bacon, ham cubes, sausage links and patties, and even some farm fresh eggs from Bill's chicken coop. Great eats!

View attachment 108726 View attachment 108727 View attachment 108728

more pics on the next post....

Always eating , nice job.

Woody

 

[HittinSteel]

Scotty, you do it all! Suprised to see you didn't make a bee gum out of the rounds for fresh honey

 

[ScotO]

Scotty, you do it all! Suprised to see you didn't make a bee gum out of the rounds for fresh honey

Hey, my first thought when I started up that hollow tree was 'I sure hope there isn't a beehive in this tree'!
I read the old timers would use chunks of hollowed out tupelo for beehives, very interesting!

 

[ScotO]

Always eating , nice job.

Woody

Hey, you know me brother.....gotta fuel the machine!

 

[HittinSteel]

IIRC from the Foxfire books, it was hollow gum the Appalachians used to rob hives.

 

[basod]

I think my father called that a "stick to your ribs breakfast"
The fond memories of a skillet full of hash on a hot coal bed at scout camp.....
Remember getting home from a weekend of camping and taking a shower everything you had on smelled like bacon - you later on in life realize you smoked yourself all weekend

I'm guessing when you realized the gum was hollow up top there was pucker factor involved?

 

[ScotO]

I think my father called that a "stick to your ribs breakfast"
The fond memories of a skillet full of hash on a hot coal bed at scout camp.....
Remember getting home from a weekend of camping and taking a shower everything you had on smelled like bacon - you later on in life realize you smoked yourself all weekend

I'm guessing when you realized the gum was hollow up top there was pucker factor involved?

Amen on the memories.....this is the same scout camp I went to when I was a kid, and when my youngest son and I went up there for the first time together (was the first time I had been up there in over 25 years) man did it bring back memories.....the smell of those hemlocks, the smell of the cabin, and seeing the different things that were still there from my childhood......good stuff...

As for the "pucker" factor, I wasn't really worried about this tree....yeah, I knew it was hollow from the get-go, but I checked it really good on the way up for splitting or cracking, looked relatively good to climb. But it was just a matter of time til this big boy came down....the right wind or ice storm, and the cabin could have been toast........

Look at that stump, there wasn't much 'meat' on that tree on the backside at the very base....after I cut it down, I looked at that and said a big THANK YOU to the Man upstairs......

 

[ScotO]

IIRC from the Foxfire books, it was hollow gum the Appalachians used to rob hives.

That's a fact!

 

[ScotO]

Good work there Scott. Enjoy this stuff while you can.

I'd be the scout dad handling the difficult task of furiously whittling away the marshmallow sticks for the campfire...

or pounding custom knives out of railroad spikes out of the forge for the kids!