Gosh he is good

[D4570]

My boy you all know has been one with a chainsaw for closes to 30 years.
BLM Fire guy first now Forest service.
He cuts trees in his sleep.
He had an ASH tree in front of his house that has slowly Dyeing and has wanted to get rid of it for years. It was one trunk for only 3 feet then branched into three. TWO of which had grown way OVER his house and garage. One day distend, to come inside and join them for dinner. With all the Big winds we have been having it was becoming a bigger priority. We gave up a day of fishing to take this beast on. One trunk was easy the weight was well over the front yard an easy drop. The next one was actually closer to the house and would have been a better candidate to be last. He wanted to use it as a pivot and weight balance for the third branch trunk. He's the boss. We hooked on with my Ditch pig a 1" diameter kinetic snatch rope, attached it to one ATV, and put a bunch of strain on it. He made the first cut like a surgeon, then took out a wedge to tip the tree in the proper direction. Then the back cut as the kinetic energy put a steady pull on the tree towering over his living room. As it started to move away from the house I took the other ATV with a rope hooked to a slide on the pig rope and gave a gentle pull to the left Making the branch pivot around and fall precisely in the right spot. Not just the right area put the exact SPOT!

Now the hard one, very bad spot, and the largest part. He lines us up for the next pull. A little adjustment and we were in the right spot according to him. This HAD to work or we had a BIG problem. He lines up the first incision cuts little looks and has me move a few Inches forward and cuts some more, then the wedge was taken out. It's all or nothing now, can't stop go go go. We both put some power on, and he let the wood chips fly. That tree looked like it had the hand of God guiding it to the ground. ABSOLUTELY perfect!!!




WOW! Dang that will make you Pucker.
He gave a little smile and said Wow, we have a bunch of firewood...

I have seen him do this before, and am amazed every time.

 

[Otto Matic]

An "artist" with a chain saw, to me, isn't necessarily the guy carving bears out of logs. It's guys who can foretell, anticipate and regulate the felling of trees.

I'm pretty good at dropping trees without much "slant". Took out 2 separate trees at my youngest kid's house. One of them leaned "kinda" towards the house. Fortunately, between the prevailing wind, some serious consideration and a pocket full of luck, I finagled it into falling about 30° away from the house! WHEW!!!
Learned alot from my paternal grampa.
Pre "Great Depression", he was a derrick builder during the Kilgore Oil Boom.
In those days, an "oil derrick" was a wooden structure and a pony or donkey engine.
He was an artist with an axe, hatchet, hammer and felling trees.
He could drive nails as well left handed as he could right handed. Amazing!

Nevertheless, congrats on being able to witness someone with skills like those!

 

[Misguided]

Absolutely admire that kind of skill. No room for any kind of error.

 

[Stsinclair]

I’ve done a few tree removals right up against houses. ALWAYS nerve wrecking...

 

[Rzrbk]

I've had to cut a few where they would hit something regardless of the direction they fell. It will definitely make you pucker when you climb a 60' tree using tree stand and strap-on tree pegs pulling the chainsaw up with ropes to cut from the top down. The beech tree was particularly scary with the smooth bark lacking good grip for my tree stand.

 

[NoWiser]

I had an elm and a basswood growing near my house. The elm was huge and dead, the basswood dying. The elm was leaning over my house and I took it down in chunks, no problem. The basswood was safer. A few well positioned ropes, and some nifty cuts, and I watched it fall directly onto my roof. So the next weekend I not only got to haul wood, I had to fix a hole in my roof and repair soffit and fascia.

I’m extremely envious of those who are as talented as your son with a chainsaw. It’s an art very few have perfected.

 

[OldSnort]

I had an elm and a basswood growing near my house. The elm was huge and dead, the basswood dying. The elm was leaning over my house and I took it down in chunks, no problem. The basswood was safer. A few well positioned ropes, and some nifty cuts, and I watched it fall directly onto my roof. So the next weekend I not only got to haul wood, I had to fix a hole in my roof and repair soffit and fascia.

I’m extremely envious of those who are as talented as your son with a chainsaw. It’s an art very few have perfected.

I heated our home with a wood fired boiler and I cut, hauled, split and stacked all of our wood. I have cut many many trees and not one of them ever fell where I wanted it to. I have dropped trees on my truck, our house, garage, dogs ,fence and the list goes on and on. So i consider the folks here my friends so I'm giving fair warning, none of you good folks ever want me to even drive by your property with a chain saw in my truck and for God's sake NEVER take advice from me about anything to do with a chainsaw

 

[JustinsDad]

We’ve all seen the videos of people that don’t have your son’s skills trying to take down trees over houses. It can go bad quickly. Good story