Stumped......................

rsv1cox Sun Jun 06, 2021 9:15 am

A West Virginia tree specialist once told me that this Oak first saw the light of day about when our Declaration of Independence was being written. Came to an end this day in 2021. Check out those perimeter roots. The center tap root was 14 inches across. They went down feet and had to be dug out. The John Deere was a help but it was down to shovels, digging bars, straps, and chains to finish the job.

Blade down on the JD made grading easy pulling backward but still took a hard rake to do the fine work. Grass seed and watered in, Sad end to 350 years of evolution.

The strap did finally give out CB, but never fully separated and never zinged past my head. Had to resort to the chain.

Ken Cook Sun Jun 06, 2021 9:56 am

While I love trees, having large ones near the house isn't good. My mom owned a extremely large German shepherd which was chained to the giant hemlock on the corner of the property. The dog's name was Sherlock and had a tow chain for a leash. She ran around the tree for years. So between the groove the chain cut into the tree and the dirt it uprooted from years of running around a storm took the tree over one evening. The tree took out 40+ feet of the house and broke the foundation. We removed the tree and the painful task of bracing the existing roof up while I removed the walls. I tried to tooth back the block work. I discovered the footer was even broken. She lived 4 hours from me and all of my weekends for several months were consumed with the task of rebuilding. I would commute back and forth daily which was quite a task in itself.

I came to the realization that my step dad and myself could not do this alone. I eventually ending up recruiting my co workers to come help. I ended up removing 75% of the foundation and forming new footers and laid the block. I was lucky the chicken farmer down the road liked us and offered us a lot of assistance with his backhoe.

This took place in mid July and by Thanksgiving in the newly rebuilt house, my mom made us the most memorable Thanksgiving dinner I ever had. Sadly she's no longer with us but the memories are. Seeing that tree and the efforts required to remove it brought back great memories. Ken

**Cribbs74** Sun Jun 06, 2021 3:34 pm

Pretty hollow on the inside. Too bad, hopefully you got some good firewood out of it.

rsv1cox Sun Jun 06, 2021 6:49 pm

It's been about 10 years since I had that Oak taken down, gave the stump time to rot, but those roots still put up a fight. Had to have it down as it was leaning right toward the house and tall enough to take out the whole West side. Besides, our bedroom was right there and when the wind blew, enough said.

The tree guys hauled off most of it. I'm currently burning the roots. I did save this little piece, cut in the middle of a root to get the chain across it. Before I lost the strap I could do just a single cut and slide the strap in the cut. Sacrificed a chain on my Stihl cutting out those roots. Easy at 73, not so easy at 83.

Going to sand it down on my belt sander, poly it and look at the thing and think, glad that's over. But not - still have this one to do.

Piece of cake, pine not hardwood. Going to take this one down myself. Rotten to the core, not much left of it. When I moved in this was a healthy pine tree. Pine bark beetles moved in same time I did.

dckrsn Sun Jun 06, 2021 8:29 pm

In my experience, fruit trees are the heavy weights. They've scared me a few times. Cut a 4" diameter
limb off an apple, and stand back! Some day, a training certificate will be required to buy a chainsaw. Liability
rules the world. Once I watched a gent in a suit, pick out a 2' bar saw at Home Depot. He could have been
capable, but it made me think(no small task). They should make them difficult to start, so if you can't start them,
you shouldn't be able to use them(ala Cox engines). As old as I am, I've never done a brake job on any
of my cars. I leave that to people who do it every day. I have friends who have several vehicles , and do brakes often,
but my autos are just for transportation, not work or collecting. Stay safe my brothers.
The all over the place, Bob.
P.S. I know you(Bob) and Ron, are more than capable.

getback Mon Jun 07, 2021 5:33 am

That was one big oak tree , i bet she was a beauty when in prime , got one in the back yard more/less that 1/2 of it split off years ago and made a mess but gave us alot of wood for that winter . Its around 4' across at base . Yeah those pine borers took out most of the pines on one side of my place , made another mess in the woods though but still ! Sad

crankbndr Mon Jun 07, 2021 6:08 am

You got lucky with the strap, now cut it up and trash it. Now put up the roll bar on the Green Machine and use the seat belt!! Jeeessse kids nowadays.