Falling pics 11/25/09

[KiwiBro]

Must have been some good tension wood, or

1. the tree wouldn't have been standing
2. the tree would have chaired or sheared before the roots tried escaping Mother Earths grasp.

Was it one of those 'suck it and see' deals? In my very limited experience I've had that once where I felt like there was a chance of rot in the worst possible place but couldn't find a way (don't have the skills, experience, IQ) to adequately test that out without blowing any (albeit slim) chance of there being a plan B.

Hard to tell from the pic but it doesn't look like he had too many other exit routes either.

 

[KiwiBro]

The 395 in pine might be NZ. I had the sound off but there was no mistaking the trigger moment. Old man pine here can get really sappy and the kerf just doesn't want to let go of your chain if the powerhead doesn't have enough 'don't argue'.

 

[Gologit]

Holy ****. What's the mechanism for that? Does it start over, stall, and instead of chairing pull the rootball? Nuts!

Wet ground, shallow or compromised root system, gravity...luck of the draw. Not uncommon, either.

RandyMac was right about Redwoods doing that. It gets real interesting when you're up on a springboard when one starts to pull through. That's when it's good to have a second faller...especially one who can yell real loud.
You don't think about anything but throwing the saw as far from you as you can while you're bailing out.

 

[KiwiBro]

Wet ground, shallow or compromised root system, gravity...luck of the draw. Not uncommon, either.

RandyMac was right about Redwoods doing that. It gets real interesting when you're up on a springboard when one starts to pull through. That's when it's good to have a second faller...especially one who can yell real loud.
You don't think about anything but throwing the saw as far from you as you can while you're bailing out.

Thanks. Is there anything other than a suck it and see or leave it alone approach that could have been taken to avoid that scenario above?

 

[HuskStihl]

I'd love to have a second faller helping me (in my case that would make him the only faller), so long as he wasn't wearing chaps over shorts

 

[Metals406]

The 395 in pine might be NZ. I had the sound off but there was no mistaking the trigger moment. Old man pine here can get really sappy and the kerf just doesn't want to let go of your chain if the powerhead doesn't have enough 'don't argue'.

I just watched a video of a swing mill milling old man pine in NZ.

They pointed out how pitchy old man pine is. And being relatively hard for being a pine.

 

[RandyMac]

Thanks. Is there anything other than a suck it and see or leave it alone approach that could have been taken to avoid that scenario above?

nope.

 

[KiwiBro]

I'd love to have a second faller helping me (in my case that would make him the only faller), so long as he wasn't wearing chaps over shorts

Windy has asked me to advise you that both Shaps™ and Chorts™ are ™ KiwiBro®©™.

 

[KiwiBro]

nope.

If that happened to squash a faller here, the pencil necked banshees would have been on TV demanding another dozen layers of well-paid, air-conditioned bureaucracy to save us from ourselves.

 

[RandyMac]

Uprooting isn't like a barber-chair, not near so sudden and usually gives some notice.
I have been an active participant in 2 uproots and had a large Madrone that almost tore itself loose from a very steep hillside. I watched a couple others, one of those was done on purpose.

 

[Gologit]

Thanks. Is there anything other than a suck it and see or leave it alone approach that could have been taken to avoid that scenario above?

No.

 

[treeslayer2003]

i take it that timber don't have much of a tap root? i have been cutting partial blown over poplar and felt the root ball under foot move a little but never uproot.

 

[RandyMac]

 

[northmanlogging]

i take it that timber don't have much of a tap root? i have been cutting partial blown over poplar and felt the root ball under foot move a little but never uproot.

Rains to much and the soil is a little shallow, most of the timber out here doesn't really have anything resembling a tap root, they just sort of spread out. Only grow 2-3' deep usually less on second growth, couple that with lots of shale, granite and glacial till... wind storms can be interesting...

 

[Metals406]

Yup, shallow root plates can be interesting. Areas full of river rock as a base are prone to it. Spruce and red cedar are two that pull the most here.

 

[treeslayer2003]

eastern red ceder normaly blows over here before it reaches any size.........tulip poplar is bad for windthrow........i just looked at a tract with prolly two loads of large 40"+ poplar blown over. what a shame, should have been harvested years ago. maybe they will make big junk saw logs now if we lucky.

 

[Trx250r180]

The old time loggers around here told me if i see something like this it is ok ,but if the stump is cut off the log ,and the log is still there not to look under the stump if it is flipped upright again ........

 

[Metals406]

Yeah, root plates can be a 'logger fly trap'. 0_o

 

[OlympicYJ]

The old time loggers around here told me if i see something like this it is ok ,but if the stump is cut off the log ,and the log is still there not to look under the stump if it is flipped upright again ........

Good way to make somebody unfindable haha

 

[slowp]

Hmmmm. Noticed this on a little amble through the woods this morning. Can you see it?