Timber! Down she comes!

[Nick Mystic]

Lightning struck a huge oak tree behind my house a couple of years ago and unfortunately killed it. I let the tree stand until now due to needing to burn up enough wood in my wood sheds to have some place to stack it. We've had horrendous winds the past couple of days, but today dawned clear and calm, so I decided it would be a good day to bring it down. I was a bit nervous because my chainsaw only has an 18" chain bar and the tree was 36" in diameter where I had to cut it. On top of that, it turned out to be hollow at the bottom, so I got a bit lucky that everything went as well as it did. The tree fell exactly where I wanted and did not take out any other healthy trees on the way down. Here are a few photos:

 

[bmblank]

Them are some good looking woods. I wish my land wasn't all planted pines..

 

[smokinj]

I hate hollow trees.

 

[Nick Mystic]

Yes, we have over eleven acres of mixed hardwoods with some pine mixed in here and there. I can usually get all my firewood from storms bringing trees down or harvesting dead trees like this one. I hate hollow trees, too. Got lucky with this one.

 

[Applesister]

Looks like the Husky did just fine.

 

[billb3]

No army swarmed out to attack the orange monster ?

I cut a 8 or 9 inch DBH oak Sunday that was hollow and unoccupied as well.


There's one of those ( large) on the front lawn of the foreclosure next door.
No return email from the real estate co that seems to be sitting on it and I don't want to just go over and take it.


Hard hat cutting for sure with old dead oaks.

 

[bogydave]

Good job, especially since it was hollow!

It was gonna come down;
Nice to take it down when & where you want

Lots of good fire wood; for heat & cook-out/bon fires

 

[Jags]

EEeekkk. You couldn't have picked a better spot for the hinge even if you knew it was hollow.

 

[Ralphie Boy]

Nice work! That could have just as easily gone really bad.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Glad that all worked out well. I too hate hollow trees, unless they are already on the ground.

 

[ScotO]

Those hollow trees can make your neck hairs stand on end, that's for sure! We dropped a big standing dead white oak at the scout camp last Saturday, it was hollow at the bottom. Makes your gut sink when your saw gets to the hollow spot and cuts like mad.......

Everything went well, though, and that tree became a nice load of firewood for the camp.

Looks like your tree came down nicely, too! Lots of good firewood on that oak.

 

[Woody Stover]

Makes your gut sink when your saw gets to the hollow spot and cuts like mad.......

Or when dark chips start coming out of the cut.

 

[Paulywalnut]

Hollow without bark always scares me. Usually only an inch or two of wood.
You have a nice bunch of wood there. Worst is over. c/s/s done.

 

[mecreature]

I turned one like that away a couple weeks ago.

Hollow trees creep me out. Way to work that 445.

 

[jdp1152]

I hate hollow trees.

As do it. This one was tall, skinny, and fighting for canopy. Full of carpenter ants. People that are anti cutting down trees need to understand that maintaining healthy lots requires culling trees/pruning so that the others can stay healthy. For the record, this one fell pretty far off the mark taking a lot of branches ofr a gorgeous sugar maple on my neighbors lot. Entire tree was pretty much hollow (30ft or thereabout). I'm actually contemplating using these as legs to a glass coffee table. Had about 15 of these all cut to 16 inches and put them all together and laid on top of them. Pretty sturdy. Unfortunately they were also very dry so I busted a lot of em up for kindling.

(broken image removed)

 

[jdp1152]

And kudos for dropping a 3ft trunk with your saw. I've got one series up from that...same saw with just a tad more power...and probably wouldn't be too inclined to tackle that. Well maybe I would if I had a friend around while doing it.

 

[smokinj]

As do it. This one was tall, skinny, and fighting for canopy. Full of carpenter ants. People that are anti cutting down trees need to understand that maintaining healthy lots requires culling trees/pruning so that the others can stay healthy. For the record, this one fell pretty far off the mark taking a lot of branches ofr a gorgeous sugar maple on my neighbors lot. Entire tree was pretty much hollow (30ft or thereabout). I'm actually contemplating using these as legs to a glass coffee table. Had about 15 of these all cut to 16 inches and put them all together and laid on top of them. Pretty sturdy. Unfortunately they were also very dry so I busted a lot of em up for kindling.

(broken image removed)

I have cut my share of them, and odds are no longer with me. Something small I can knock over with a bucket or winch is ok but not with my trigger finger.