eye.heart.trees
arborjunky
I've got this Live Oak (76lbs/cu.ft., heaviest tree I know by quite a bit) that lost a massive limb - that made/fed its entire canopy - in a storm about a month ago, smashed the fence dead-center on a panel and is currently a big stump/staub(am I using that word correctly?) that I've had sitting for like 1mo because I'm unsure on whether I've got everything taken into-consideration to safely fell it - not only does it have that increasing-as-it-gets-taller lean, it's got like 5 or 7 sq ft of dead-trunk on the rear (rear relative to felling direction, I intend to fell this 100.0% in-line with where it wants to / leans to, further fencing damage is just fine / easy to fix I just want to be sure I drop this w/o it losing control (never fell anything with this much lean before, in fact have fell only a handful of trees this thick..) The slight slope in the ground is as perfect as I could hope for, as-is the lean's direction, in terms of nearly-perfectly aimed *away-from* the house!!!
Picture-album https://imgur.com/a/fQwGPqd , see how much this thing *wants* to fall, its nutrition has only been cut-off a month but that should mean *some* degree of change in bark//sap//hardwood movement...that lean just gets steeper as the trunk goes up and that was the area feeding the fallen limb/canopy so it's heavy-as-can-be and counter-balanced against a rear-bottom that's got a spot that'd started dying I feel like I should be aiming above that so-far as my hinge-height (having the hinge *alongside* the interfacing of live&deadwood seems it'd be incredibly unpredictable), but essentially just doing ~85%(?) as much actual cutting as a true-vertical tree will let me get it weakened enough that a 1/2" tag-line / pull-line from the top will suffice in "that last 15%" so to speak (am picturing anywhere between ~50% to 90% as much cutting as normal actually maybe 80% is a better upper-bound) but am seeing it as something where the actual felling isn't done with the cutting the is merely to make it nice&ready-for a clean and easy snap from the trunk-base (going to have my hinge-height a bit higher as I want to make a planter out of the stump instead of dealing with it, figure it's an easy way to have a neat a planter for a while!), will primarily be pulling via the 1/2" bull line from the trunk's top to my truck's hitch (using 1 or more pulleys in my truck-bed as-needed, truck itself isn't reliable-enough for the subtle-pressurse I'd use for pulling something and it's sand here / I'll be across the lawn 35' from the tree)
Is there a good safe way of just doing a 'normal' type of hinging on something like this? I expect(&hope!!) that it's OK to just cut a moderate hinge, then plunge cuts (center of notch/hinge or through the sides only?), then like 50% of the rear-cut, then get clear of it and rely upon the leverage applied via the rope (eyeballing that trunk, I suck at this but it must be a ton maybe ton and a half, 76lbs/cu.ft.) as, using pulleys, I can generate a ton of pressure and I'm not trying to alter its fall/favor/lean I'm just 'helping it' go down - can't help but wondering if it's worth bringing the saw up (when setting the taglines, will be 2 as I want *some* degree of control from someone holding the rope will probably set that with a sling & pulley for 2:1 advantage for them while they pull alongside my pulling from within the truck-bed, the 2nd line is going to be a 3/8" it's wimpy but should be fine & isn't critical it's really just to prevent any surprising deadwood-fault-lines throwing the thing off-kilter too-much and hurting more fencing than-necessary (hitting another panel on either side doesn't matter although this thing looks like it just wants to go directly where its fallen-limb went through the fence,) I'm not at-all worried about getting the thing to fall I'm worried about doing it as safely as possible because I don't know that this will even creak before it's ready to just slam down, it's got wayyy too strong a lean I think just strategically cutting a hinge & relying on the bull rope is fine- can't get myself to proceed as I'm not sure on it so thanks a ton for any&all advice/tips/etc, am wondering if *wayyy* more of this should be via the bull rope I mean that trunk shouldn't need *that* much coersion from the pull-line after notching & plunging (I feel like the rear-cut is the dicey part because of the chance of underestimating how strong the remaining trunk is for the weight it's holding so want to aim & do a more minimal rear cut and then rely on the rope(s, as the 2nd line is still tension even though it's a true 'tag-line' for not letting it get too-far to its side!)
Thanks a ton for all helpful input it is really appreciated!!
[really starting to think I should cut a quick groove into the rear of the trunk's top as a channel for the pull-lines to grab, just for that extra security since - once I've made my cuts & started tensioning that thing - at that point I'd imagine it's incredibly dangerous to be going back into its fall-zone , let alone having to go and try to cut the trunk furtthter..between (2) pull-lines with a person using a 2:1, at least, pulley on each line, one 1/2" line and one 3/8" line with 2:1 advantage must be generating over a thousand pounds maybe get that closer to a ton if setup a 5:1 on the 1/2" line to my truck but I imagine 500lbs of pull-force, at that angle on this trunk, would set-of / crack any halfway-there hinging that was at that sweet-spot down low?!]
Picture-album https://imgur.com/a/fQwGPqd , see how much this thing *wants* to fall, its nutrition has only been cut-off a month but that should mean *some* degree of change in bark//sap//hardwood movement...that lean just gets steeper as the trunk goes up and that was the area feeding the fallen limb/canopy so it's heavy-as-can-be and counter-balanced against a rear-bottom that's got a spot that'd started dying I feel like I should be aiming above that so-far as my hinge-height (having the hinge *alongside* the interfacing of live&deadwood seems it'd be incredibly unpredictable), but essentially just doing ~85%(?) as much actual cutting as a true-vertical tree will let me get it weakened enough that a 1/2" tag-line / pull-line from the top will suffice in "that last 15%" so to speak (am picturing anywhere between ~50% to 90% as much cutting as normal actually maybe 80% is a better upper-bound) but am seeing it as something where the actual felling isn't done with the cutting the is merely to make it nice&ready-for a clean and easy snap from the trunk-base (going to have my hinge-height a bit higher as I want to make a planter out of the stump instead of dealing with it, figure it's an easy way to have a neat a planter for a while!), will primarily be pulling via the 1/2" bull line from the trunk's top to my truck's hitch (using 1 or more pulleys in my truck-bed as-needed, truck itself isn't reliable-enough for the subtle-pressurse I'd use for pulling something and it's sand here / I'll be across the lawn 35' from the tree)
Is there a good safe way of just doing a 'normal' type of hinging on something like this? I expect(&hope!!) that it's OK to just cut a moderate hinge, then plunge cuts (center of notch/hinge or through the sides only?), then like 50% of the rear-cut, then get clear of it and rely upon the leverage applied via the rope (eyeballing that trunk, I suck at this but it must be a ton maybe ton and a half, 76lbs/cu.ft.) as, using pulleys, I can generate a ton of pressure and I'm not trying to alter its fall/favor/lean I'm just 'helping it' go down - can't help but wondering if it's worth bringing the saw up (when setting the taglines, will be 2 as I want *some* degree of control from someone holding the rope will probably set that with a sling & pulley for 2:1 advantage for them while they pull alongside my pulling from within the truck-bed, the 2nd line is going to be a 3/8" it's wimpy but should be fine & isn't critical it's really just to prevent any surprising deadwood-fault-lines throwing the thing off-kilter too-much and hurting more fencing than-necessary (hitting another panel on either side doesn't matter although this thing looks like it just wants to go directly where its fallen-limb went through the fence,) I'm not at-all worried about getting the thing to fall I'm worried about doing it as safely as possible because I don't know that this will even creak before it's ready to just slam down, it's got wayyy too strong a lean I think just strategically cutting a hinge & relying on the bull rope is fine- can't get myself to proceed as I'm not sure on it so thanks a ton for any&all advice/tips/etc, am wondering if *wayyy* more of this should be via the bull rope I mean that trunk shouldn't need *that* much coersion from the pull-line after notching & plunging (I feel like the rear-cut is the dicey part because of the chance of underestimating how strong the remaining trunk is for the weight it's holding so want to aim & do a more minimal rear cut and then rely on the rope(s, as the 2nd line is still tension even though it's a true 'tag-line' for not letting it get too-far to its side!)
Thanks a ton for all helpful input it is really appreciated!!
[really starting to think I should cut a quick groove into the rear of the trunk's top as a channel for the pull-lines to grab, just for that extra security since - once I've made my cuts & started tensioning that thing - at that point I'd imagine it's incredibly dangerous to be going back into its fall-zone , let alone having to go and try to cut the trunk furtthter..between (2) pull-lines with a person using a 2:1, at least, pulley on each line, one 1/2" line and one 3/8" line with 2:1 advantage must be generating over a thousand pounds maybe get that closer to a ton if setup a 5:1 on the 1/2" line to my truck but I imagine 500lbs of pull-force, at that angle on this trunk, would set-of / crack any halfway-there hinging that was at that sweet-spot down low?!]
always in the old dead threads. Thanks chipper 
