Came out of climbing retirement for a wedding.

[fearofpavement]

So after my last sectional takedown, Groundi and I agreed that I'm too old and fat to be spike climbing trees anymore so I "retired". We still do some tree service stuff but since I don't climb our capabilities have been reduced about 80%. My niece is getting married Saturday and she requested about 20 2" thick cookies for table decorations. I told her "no problem". Well, wouldn't ya know I don't have any decent wood so we decided to take down an oak tree in our yard that was crowded in with a cherry and water oak. Of course it would have hit the house, garage or dog fence any way we felled it so I had to top it out. First thing I did was get the saw stuck (first cut, grrr!) Groundi fetched me her MS180C and sent it up. I opened the cap and it was bone dry... (I didn't ask her to check it)
Anyway, got it down and the tops are on the ground. Once I catch my breath we'll finish cutting it up and get her cookies cut.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Bet you a buck that some of those tops and cookies are going to be cut by one of your Stihl 026 saws. Take a pic of all those decorations. It should be interesting. She might be sticking candles into drilled holes.

I admire your tenacity. My climbing days ceased about 10 years ago.

 

[angelo c]

may not be as good as I once was....but I'm as good once...as I ever was !!!!

 

[fearofpavement]

I actually brought out a Husky 55 for limbing duties. It'll be going on the market this fall so I wanted to run it some more. I think it's one I put a Huztl cyl kit on. I used that until I threw a chain and then used Groundi's MS180C. Those 180's are unbeatable for small limbs with that tiny chain it zips right through.
I'm testing out an MS440 so will probably use that for the cookie cutting but the stem is still standing until we get the rest of the mess under control.

 

[KenJax Tree]

I made about 50 of them out of dry dead oak last year for my brother and sister-in-laws wedding shower and they decorated them all up by gluing acorns and fake leaves and set candles on them. People even took them home as decorations

 

[KenJax Tree]

My climbing days are done soon[emoji106]

 

[fearofpavement]

I have dry dead oak but she wanted the bark on them. When I tried cutting some out of older logs, the bark shed. Thus she's getting green dead oak.

 

[KenJax Tree]

These still had the bark on them...i'll see if my wife kept one.

 

[fearofpavement]

You can see the top of the stem poking out of the brush. The tree is essentially upside down now in that what was on top is now on the bottom. We have about 2/3 of the brush limbed out now but no updated pics as we could barely drag ourselves into the house. Probably would have finished if not for the thunder. (I'm paranoid about lightning having experienced it several years ago)

 

[fearofpavement]

The picture disappeared so I'm trying again.

 

[Stihl Livin]

I did some cookies for a friend of mines wedding last year out of poplar. She also wanted a cake pop stand so I used a big piece of cotton wood and drilled some holes for the cake pops. People thought I should change careers and start selling the stuff. No way, then I would lose interest in cutting wood

 

[fearofpavement]

 

[fearofpavement]

Looks pretty white for a red oak, eh? (water oak)

 

[Wood Doctor]

Looks pretty white for a red oak, eh? (water oak)

I agree. Too light in color for oak. Are you sure it's not ash or hackberry? The leaf will tell you.

 

[fearofpavement]

I agree. Too light in color for oak. Are you sure it's not ash or hackberry? The leaf will tell you.

It's a water oak. That's a very common species of tree here in the south. We don't have any ash in this part of Georgia. My comment was just referring to how white the wood was, not that I didn't know what it was. Water oak is in the red oak family as is the willow oak which is another common type of oak tree around here. Water oaks can exceed 6' in diameter. This one was about 20" so relatively young.

 

[Bilge Rat LT 20]

Water oaks get big, 40" plus then the roots can rot. Add a lot of rain and wind and they will fall between two workshops right where a classic old Mako flats boat sits.
That was fun to cut up.
A large limb hit the ground first before the main trunk hit the boat.

Boat looks OK, no major crushing etc. The trailer may be slightly squished into the soft dirt. It is Dead, bent.

We have water oak, post oak, a few red oaks, white oak, and a few above my spelling level.
All sorts of pretty wood.

FOP you wanna cut a few very tall pines that are left around the oak that fell???

 

[fearofpavement]

This is a water oak too.