Just felled a dead ash behind my shed

[smokingolf]

About ten years ago I bought a new prefab shed, someone my wife worked with offered to take the old one down in pieces for a play house for his daughter. I now had room to take down a dying tree next to where the shed was going. Took that tree down no problem and noticed another tree that would be behind the shed that was dead and leaning over the site. Walked up to it and stepped on a 2X6 with a big old rusty spike in it. Well that took care of taking that tree down. Well it is still there 10 year later and looking at it, it looks like it is starting to rot on the bottom and will sometime in the future fall on my shed with all my equipment so it needs to come down and soon. Well Friday me and a co-worker planned to cut it down. After studying the lean we decided to cut it from the other side I had previously was going to cut it and let it fall to the north, but thought better and let it fall to the south, now the tree is leaning to the west south west over the shed. We tied some ropes to try to stop it from falling west to the shed and tied another rope and pulled it around a tree to the south. While my friend was pulling the rope from a safe distance, I started to make the cuts. Before when we were studying the tree my friend said the tree should fall to the left of this small tree and that dead branch will get hung up and break but we should be OK. Everything he said happend and we dropped that tree on a dime. The tree has been dead for over ten years and the wedge I cut out feel well seasond and dry. I now have to cut it up and split it. I have 2 cords in racks now that are well seasond so this tree even though it seems dry won't be burned untill next year or maybe the end of this season as needed. I was quit proud of my self for the cuts and missing my shed. I feel like we over thunk the project but it is better to be safe than sorry.

Just felt I had to share this story.

Brian

 

[wendell]

Pictures or it didn't happen.

 

[smokinj]

Pictures or it didn't happen.

+1 great story but I do better with pic's

 

[smokingolf]

It's been so long I don't think I can get the xray of the rust in my foot, but I will get pictures of the stump and the broken pieces where it landed.

Brian

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Brian, those can sometimes be a problem but also can be fun to figure out. Sounds like you guys did an excellent job. Next time, drive a peg part way into the ground about 15-20 feet from the stump and try to drive it the rest of the way into the ground with the tree! We used to to that a lot and can be fun and make a challenge.

As for the wood, if it is ash and been dead that long, you should be able to burn it right now.

As for the foot, well, I hope it heals fast. Those can hurt. I speak from experience.

 

[smokingolf]

Well, here is a pic from the back of my shed facing west with tree lying safely to the south.

 

[Skier76]

That's a good sized Ash! How much wood do you think you'll get out of it?

 

[LLigetfa]

Is there a name for that style of felling notch? It's amazing how long a dead Ash can stay standing. Glad you got it down safely.

 

[smokinj]

Is there a name for that style of felling notch? It's amazing how long a dead Ash can stay standing. Glad you got it down safely.

If there is I would like to know as well?

 

[derecskey]

Is there a name for that style of felling notch? It's amazing how long a dead Ash can stay standing. Glad you got it down safely.

If there is I would like to know as well?

I think it's called the Random Trial'n'Error Notch.

 

[LLigetfa]

I figured maybe a whole lot of thought went into it like these antennas that NASA spent millions to design.

(broken link removed to http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/research/exploringtheuniverse/borg.html)

 

[smokingolf]

I made the upper cut first and angled it up towards the shed, someone said this will help it fall a little more in the right direction as it was leaning toward the shed. Then when I mad the down cut I missed the back part of the wedge so I then improvised. Bottom line the tree fell where we wanted it and it missed the shed. Boy you guys are tough. That's why I love this site.

Brian

 

[smokinj]

I made the upper cut first and angled it up towards the shed, someone said this will help it fall a little more in the right direction as it was leaning toward the shed. Then when I mad the down cut I missed the back part of the wedge so I then improvised. Bottom line the tree fell where we wanted it and it missed the shed. Boy you guys are tough. That's why I love this site.

Brian

lol Its good when you can take it! just looks a little awkward but wasnt so big that you couldnt control it.... Good Job!

 

[smokingolf]

That's a good sized Ash! How much wood do you think you'll get out of it?

I was hopping you guys might help with that. 20 ft of base is avg. 16 in dia. middle 20 ft 8 in dia the other upper 20 ft 6 to 4 inch pieces. Funny thing wood from the top of the tree 1/3 is rotten on one side. If I had to guess 1/2 cord maybe a little more. Tree was 50 to 60 ft tall with only a couple dead branches up top. I do have another dead ash about 20 feet from the one I just took down about 40 ft tall with no branches. Will take that later as no danger falling on anything.

Brian

 

[smokinj]

That's a good sized Ash! How much wood do you think you'll get out of it?

I was hopping you guys might help with that. 20 ft of base is avg. 16 in dia. middle 20 ft 8 in dia the other upper 20 ft 6 to 4 inch pieces. Funny thing wood from the top of the tree 1/3 is rotten on one side. If I had to guess 1/2 cord maybe a little more. Tree was 50 to 60 ft tall with only a couple dead branches up top. I do have another dead ash about 20 feet from the one I just took down about 40 ft tall with no branches. Will take that later as no danger falling on anything.

Brian

I do most of my work in and around houses so mostly I will use wedges and ropes to make sure I hit the right spot... only been using ropes for about 8 months now and I never would have thought it would be as much help as it has become!

 

[smokingolf]

Just cut, split and stacked all the wood from my ash. A friend from work came over to help me on this gorgeous fall afternoon we worked all afternoon in tee shirts. Here are some pictures of the wood stacked, we figure about a 1/4 to 1/3 a cord. I also took the advice from someone in this wood shed forum and wore my back brace so I feel pretty good right now. However, we didn't need to split anything with the maul we were able to use my 5 ton electric splitter from Lowes, I can't believe how well it worked. We were even splitting the larger chunks although we had to coax them just right into splitting ;-) . Unfortunately, after all this work it's too warm tonight to have a fire, it just seems wrong to split wood all day and not have a fire that night, but oh well!

Well I'm about to have dinner and then settle down to watch my football game tonight as I mentioned to someone in the hearth room that just got a quad 4100i who's a stealer fan from Pennsylvania that this part of Central CT is Boys country.

Brian

 

[smokingolf]

That's a good sized Ash! How much wood do you think you'll get out of it?

I was hopping you guys might help with that. 20 ft of base is avg. 16 in dia. middle 20 ft 8 in dia the other upper 20 ft 6 to 4 inch pieces. Funny thing wood from the top of the tree 1/3 is rotten on one side. If I had to guess 1/2 cord maybe a little more. Tree was 50 to 60 ft tall with only a couple dead branches up top. I do have another dead ash about 20 feet from the one I just took down about 40 ft tall with no branches. Will take that later as no danger falling on anything.

Brian

Took that one down Sunday Nov. 29th was trying to drop it to the south as shed is north west of the tree about 15 feet away. I put the first notch cut about one third into the tree and pulled the chain saw out and looked up and it was falling to the north west. By the time I yelled "Oh my God" it was down and missed the shed by six inches. It landed on a rack I made out of 2X4's and knocked out a few splits from the pile. I got lucky as the base of the tree was rotten on the north side of the tree about half way through. Not sure if it is worth burning, I may cut it up and knock off the any rotted wood and keep it dry and see how it burns.

Brian

Will get some pictures for you none believers.

 

[gzecc]

SmokinG, Is that wood going right into the fire. Are you going to season it?

 

[smokingolf]

SmokinG, Is that wood going right into the fire. Are you going to season it?

Everyone here says you can burn it a few months after splitting it and if it's dead you can burn it almost immediately. This wood is rotten in spots, I will try to keep it dry and burn with other good wood, it will probably burn hot and fast.

Brian