Like saying the F-word in front of your momma

[GRTimberCO]

Long story short is I was cutting the virginia pine off my parents place yesterday. I got to a very large one close to the cabin on the back side of the property. It's sitting just west of the cabin, leaning to the south a little. Simple game plan- 1. make my notch on the south side, 2. make a plunge cut into the tree and work toward the hinge, 3. drive wedges in north side. 4 cut the strip wood and watch it fall, 5. skid it out.

Well the notch went OK, made the plunge cut but was a little deep in the wood so when I got to the hinge I backed up and cut a little more from the strip from the inside... and that's when it happened..... the tree rocked over onto the saw toward me.

I tried to pull the saw out but it was hung, and slowly the big pine started toward me. I locked the chain break and hit the kill switch and thought to myself, "well the saw is just going to have to fend for itself." and I side stepped the big joker as it crashed down about 5 feet from the cabin porch.
Damage was minimal- one corner gutter and down spout from a limb, restacking a landscaping block retaining wall, one 28" bar... banana-ed.

So my moral is... When Your falling trees, especially big trees, take your time and pay attention to all of your cuts. The stump revieled that I had cut into my hinge wood on the west( far) side away from me and I didn't realize it. And when you cut into your hinge wood it's like saying the F-word in front of your momma... You can't take it back.

 

[sawinredneck]

"well the saw is just going to have to fend for itself."

Welcome to AS

I ain't going to say a thing, other than I am glad nobody got hurt, nuthing got tore up bad, and you had enough balls to admit you screwed up, and learned why and what not to do tomorow!!!!

Now, that was some funny :censored: !!!! Glad you came out OK!! Been there, done that, and I aint going to lie to ya!!

 

[grandpatractor]

Been there too. as long as ya made it out ok we can all learn something.
J.D.

 

[wahoowad]

I had a close call too. Tree looked perfectly straight with no lean one way or another. Notched it to go away from house. A tiny little breeze started up and it started back towards the house. I got the saw out but could not hammer a felling wedge in to save my life. Had to get some rope...blah blah blah. Could have been worse. Sorry you have to fix that stuff.

 

[IchWarriorMkII]

At least you learned something and didn't get hurt...


I bored through a hinge on a cotton wood tree, but the trigger wood held it, so I took the power head loose and tripped the trigger with my small saw.

To be accurate, I tripped half the trigger when the tree said " :censored: you Im going to fall now" and it went bang and went.

A little bit scary, but I learned a lot.

 

[PA Plumber]

Welcome.
Thank you for a good reminder post. Very glad you were able to tell the story and things aren't worse.

 

[Timberhauler]

Been there myself.Two weeks ago I cut down this massive white oak.When the thing landed,I guess one of the limbs caused this,but the whole tree kicked straight back at me,the butt ended up nearly eight feet past the stump.I was lucky to get out of the way fast enough

 

[Lakeside53]

Scarey... but it's supposed to make us smarter.. sure...

I made a perfect face cut in a 20 inch hemlock yesterday - nice sound wood.

Hmmm... big back cut, 2 inch hinge, big GROAN from the tree. Backed way off... Felled the other tree whch triggered the hemlock fall. Looking at the stump - the entire center a 1/4 inch back from my face was punky...

In this case, nothing mattered as the tree was already hung up and at a 60 degree angle, and it was going to fall once the other tree holding it up was removed, but for "ordinary" felling no way..... Basically ended up with NO hinge...

 

[Like The Woods!]

Boy o' boys....your title brought back one of the most embarassing moments in my life. It was 1966, and I just came back from "over there", and was home on leave.

Sunday dinner...whole dang family there just a yaking away at the table, when out of my mouth comes "can you pass me the f-ing butter please". No body said a thing, and in a couple seconds the yaking commenced again. I was so happy to be home, that I think it bothers me more now than it did then.

 

[oldsaw]

I like your sense of humor. No, momma don't wanna hear about bad cuts or the F-word, and no, you can't take either one back.

I got to do a "pole tree" dance once up above Estes Park, CO (at about 8000-8500 ft). Had been no wind all day, caught a couple of puffs while I was sizing up the tree, but nothing to be concerned with. Tree started to tip, pulled the saw out, started to back away and a big wind hit, sat the tree back, stopped, and it started to tip again, came back, pushed it back again, and repeat. I was getting dang tired at that elevation trying to figure out where it was going to go. Then, the wind stopped, the tree fell within inches of where I wanted it, and all me and the guy I was cutting with could do is stare at each other and shake out heads. Neither of us had ever seen anything like it, and he'd lived in the mountains for 50 years.

Mark

 

[hornett22]

glad you're OK!

at least it's just another "could have been alot worse" stories.

 

[SRT-Tech]

thats how my gramps got killed when i was little, felling a big oak, cut slightly (1") according to the report) into the hinge and down the tree went, crushing him before he could back out. rip guido

 

[stihltech]

timberrrrrrrrrrrr

Darn trees just won't cooperate.
Had the butt end of a small tree knock my glasses off and brushburn my forehead. I learned to back up farther after that.

 

[Austin1]

East side for me!

I did the same thing but not as big a tree, Found a nice pine dead standing for fire wood on Friday last week. Thought gee I can drop that right beside my truck like 25 feet away! I under estimated the hight of the tree,and I was getting cocky for my 25 ft safety distance missed By 4 feet had shrapnel in the back of the truck! it was a 17inch pine but it would have done damage! I will make sure next time I am parked far away!!!!

 

[stihl 440]

I guess I'm going to have to say my story now. I haven't told much of anybody about this, but somehow this thread made me tell it. I was out in the woods one day in may of 05. Nice day. By the way this was before I started following the cutting style of GOL. It was a 20" dead but sound white oak. I was cutting my firewood for the year with my 440 (6 months old at the time). I made my notch and for some reason didn't bore this tree. I just made the backcut when the :censored:er sat back on me. I just got the bar in up to the chain(about 3 sec in). So I couldn't put wedges in. So I got my collins axe and started chopping it out. I chopped for probably 5 min. This white oak was really hard probably dead for 5 years. By the way I was trying to fall it against the lean (stupid). It set back on me and was aimed right for the powerhead(which was dogged in). I heard a big crack and said:censored:. I threw the axe down. I reached for the powerhead, grabbed it by the top handlebar. I pulled it to me(the tree falling must have relieved some pressure on the bar). I did all this while the tree is falling probably all within 1 or 2 seconds. I got the powerhead out of the fall path, then I sill am not sure what happened after after that. But by this time I am shaking so bad I can barely stand up. After the tree hit the ground I see my bar is bent (looked like a banana). This is the only tree I had set back on me this bad. I only have had probably 3 set back on me my whole life. I have had none of them set back on me using the GOL method of felling and bucking. The lesson I learned was always observe every tree prior to felling, and this tree scared the s:censored: out of me. It also cost me a $50.00 20" stihl ES bar and $20.00 stihl rm chain. And don't let a tree scare you so bad that you quit falling. Unless you are very inexpirenced. I'm still falling probably 10,000 later, lovin' every minute of it. I bore almost everyone of my trees now, using the GOL method. Everyone screws up every once in awhile, that was just my day to.

 

[Log Splitter]

All good stories that came out fine in the end. I've learned that what's funny to talk about later is often deathly scary when it's happening.

I'm just a firewood cutting 'hack', but as for getting the bar stuck when a tree rocks back unexpectedly, my first move is to unbolt the powerhead and remove it from the B&C. That way I won't lose the whole saw if my efforts to get everything back under control don't work out.

I've also learned that the tree gods seem to pick on new bars over ones that are about worn out. I wonder why that is?

 

[emmerth]

Here is another one..

Cutting a dead oak that has been standing for about 3 years. It looked pretty steady but dry. I got cut the wedge and as my I cutting the back cut, the tree starts to fall in the right direction. As I start to move away from the falling tree, some wood chips start hitting me on the head. I look up and the top the tree is falling right at me. I barely got away.

Talk about scarey. I looked at the tree where it had split and it was rotten (the rest of the tree was good). It appeared that a some kind of animal had made a nest in the tree which caused it to rot.

 

[turnkey4099]

I did the same thing but not as big a tree, Found a nice pine dead standing for fire wood on Friday last week. Thought gee I can drop that right beside my truck like 25 feet away! I under estimated the hight of the tree,and I was getting cocky for my 25 ft safety distance missed By 4 feet had shrapnel in the back of the truck! it was a 17inch pine but it would have done damage! I will make sure next time I am parked far away!!!!

I did the 'stupid' a few years ago. Went out to fall one tree, changed my mind and layed into a different one. Went where planned, good wood, limbed, blocked loaded. Wasn't until I got in the truck that I discovered I had wiped out the mirror and put a BIG ding in the passenger side door. Truck was well clear for the first tree but I hadn't looked when changed my mind. Had to be careful which way I parked the truck for a long while so the wife wouldn't see it.

My first experience with the unexpected was working for a farmer. He needed fenceposts so decided to fall a big tamarack. The saw was a big old Mall with 48" bar. I was on the outboard end. We barely got the bar buried when the whole tree sat vertically down. I departed, he tried to yank the saw out and also decparted. When all the uproar and dust subsided, the saw was still putting away but there was a near perfect 90 degree bend in the bar. Inspection showed that the tree was rotten at the butt except for a very thin ring of good wood. No, neigther of us knew enough to check for bad wood before starting cutting.

Harry K

 

[SteveH]

Old guy up the road, big dead pine about six feet from one corner of his cabin. Says to me, "my chainsaw [some little Homelite, looks in bad shape] won't start, could you cut this thing down for me." Tree leans a bit toward the house, a few degrees. Lots of snow, knee deep around the tree. Windy. I said, "I don't cut in snow like that unless it's an emergency, besides that tree is gonna hit the house without rope [etc.] and some help to guide it down, plus it's solid and can wait til spring" and so on. I've done a bunch of stuff like this for him, no problem. But not this one, not in winter. He got his son to come up from fifty miles away and do it. I stopped by during the adventure, son had his Sears saw bar stuck in the tree, trying to cut from the leaning side [no comment]. He said, "How does a fella get the saw out." I said, you don't, best you can do is unbolt the bar, leave it stuck, recut the tree with another bar. They didn't have another bar. So on. They eventually got it worked out, the tree came down on one corner of the overhanging roof [not bad, considering]. Guess they'll pull off the blue tarps and repair the roof next spring.

My wife asked, "How come you weren't somehow involved in this thing, for once...." I still love her, though.

 

[Cut4fun]

Just read your story. You might find my homemade cartoon funny at the bottom area.