2022 Summer Project (cont.)

 My plan worked well!  I was able to climb the branches.  I wouldn't have been able to cut down an oak, or maple that way.  This is when it got very, very dangerous.  I must admit that I got scared once while I was up there, when the wind kicked up and the tree started swaying.  I decided it would be easier to cut the top off, rather than continue climbing, as the branches were getting smaller and smaller.

 

 

I used a chain saw, which made me nervous because I could imagine cutting a deep gash in my thigh, and being stuck up there, unable to climb down.  Though I didn't know the other dangers.

I cut that wedge out, then cut from the other side, towards the middle, using the chain saw.  What I didn't count on was that the tree "wanted" to fall in the other direction.  To make matters worse, my neighbor decided to mow her back lawn that afternoon.  I warned her about the tree wanting to fall towards her property, and she assured me she'd not go near the tree.  But of course, she did anyway.  Luckily, I saw her, and just waited until she was done.  

This is when I was stupid.  It was tiring hanging on to the branches, which weren't in an ideal place, so I placed my arm in the cut out, and held myself in place that way, while I waited for her to finish mowing.  Once she was gone, I tried rocking the tree back and forth, to make it fall, but it wasn't enough.  I had to climb down and get a steel wedge.  I put the steel wedge in the crack I had cut opposite the cut out wedge, and hammered it in a bit with a 5 lb. hand sledge.  I paused a moment to get my phone, to take a picture when suddenly, the whole top dropped down, then fell to the ground.  There was no slow, steady tipping over then falling.  It was down in less than three seconds.

 All I could think about was, "What if my arm was in there when the top dropped?  Jesus, my arm would have been crushed."  But the top was safely down, on my property, and no one was injured.

Next, I needed to work my way down the main trunk, cutting pieces off.  I felt that was a better idea than trying to drop the entire log, not knowing which way it would go, or what damage it could cause. 

 

That also took time, but in the end, I cut it down to about 20' high, then put a bat house at the top, hoping the bats would stay there, instead of in my attic, as they had in July.