Took out a trouble tree.

[Kevin in Ohio]

Wow! Huge tree!!!

You had the right tool for the job with that lift. Trying to drop those individually would have turned into a literal dumpster fire.

Doing the side with the bad center was an eye opener. There was an extreme amount of weight hanging there. Look at it as it is basically 45 degrees. On about a 12 inch limb, I undercut about 1 inch and the saw started to pinch. Went to the top and cut about 3 and it popped loose. Cutting that one spur would be a good way to loose a saw or your life. Withe the rot and weight I could not see a safe way to cut it from the ground. Way to many variables of unpredictability.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Wind died down some and we decided to chip up the brush. Dad wanted the chips for his garden so it'll save burning it all.

We're just blowing it in the back of the truck and he has a tarp laying on the floor. We move it quite a bit to save steps. the chipper does real well and it's basically as fast as you can feed it. Feeding constant works best.

It chips really nice. The long dark pieces you see are catalpa beans. they feed right through.

It has a quick adjust chute and a power feed. You can reverse the feed as well if needed. It never plug normally

Ended up being just one load which was fine with me. Took us about 2 1/2 hours. Getting ready to dump it in Dad's garden here.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

After lunch I decided it was time to cut this ash down. Standing dead for 5 years now and you can see the bark is off of it for the most part.I want to drop it straight back in line with the camera view. there is a burn pile out of sight and I'll burn the junk tomorrow.

This is at my place so the wood will go straight into the boiler house. Nice when they are this close.

Got the wedge out but didn't even need it. It was just barely unbalanced the way I wanted it to go. That doesn't happen too often. Nice, slow and steady drop.

No other tree damage and we got it all cut up. Even hauled most all the wood not needing split. Not needing split means I can lift it so it's about 16" and under. Got a good bit done today.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Amazing how much those chips weigh. That truck is loaded. Good traction, however.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

It was zero this morning here and evidently a little too cold for the camera on the first 3 pics. Since it's cold a need a fire to keep warm! I'll start it and throw the remainder of the brush on it while I babysit.

I'll peel the rest of the bark off and burn it as well. You know as soon as you split it is going to come off anyway. Tree ended up being 25 inches 3ft up from the ground.

This ought to keep me warm. Notice the saw in the middle bottom of the pile for scale.

Walked down to the boiler and got a 5 gallon bucket full of coals. Didn't take long to get it going with that.

Some good heat and we're burning clean. I cleaned up close to the pile first before it got to be too much heat.

Just the chunks left to split now. I'll get the splitter out and we about a days worth of splitting as it's in 3 locations. Some nice wood here.

All raked in and it'll have coals there for a couple weeks I'd guess. Coal pile is about 4 ft deep and 20 ft in diameter.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

It's been a couple of months but we could finally get back into the field to split the wood up. It has been raining or snowing pretty constant since December and finally have a window to do it. We did the stuff in his yard first while it was still froze on top some.

This is how it works best for us. Just back down the log length and lift the bigger ones with the remote winch. Then throw to the side if you don't have another truck/trailer. Then once the truck is next to the wood, either load or come back for a hauling day. Dad came to help and it makes a bog difference. He's 80 and still going strong.

While we were here we decided to throw a load on his truck. First time using his and probably won't do it again. bumper is too low and angles the splitter too much. I have the drop hitch for my 3/4 ton.

Lower ones were rotted in the center but overall, most of the wood was solid and as good as silver Maple can be. LOL

Keep working our way to the stump and back up occasionally to say the cable drag. It's a constant movement thing as once you get it down to smaller size, the other guy can unspool and start dragging in/up. Basically no waiting that way.

The piece we were looking for...the last one. there will be about 3 trucks worth here.

He said he'd cut the stump so we will see.

All strapped down and ready to head out. Took a little less than 3 hours but we had to move quite a bit.