[AT] Knowing when to call it a day

[Mike M]

On 11/15/2019 8:07 PM, Dean Vinson wrote:
>
> I had some free time this afternoon so I went out to cut down another
> big osage orange tree, this one out in an old pasture.   Being an
> osage orange it had two big trunks, each maybe 12-16 inches in
> diameter and both of them leaning away from vertical, and lots of
> tangled branches that sprawled out every which way.   Some of those
> sprawling branches had gotten to the point of encroaching on the
> pasture fence, so I loaded up the wagon with the chainsaw, chainsaw
> gas, bar oil, and log chain, fired up the Farmall Super M, and headed
> out to work.
>
> Took most of an hour to get the first trunk successfully cut down and
> sawed up into manageable sized pieces.   Not really that big of a tree
> but man do those things have a lot of sprangly little interlocking
> branches that you’re constantly fighting and having to cut up into
> smaller pieces just so you can move them even though they don’t weigh
> very much.   When I was finished with that first trunk, I noticed the
> sun was close to setting and I thought “I should call it a day and go
> get cleaned up right now.”
>
> But heck, I’m already out there, already all suited up in PPE, so I
> decided to go for the second trunk.   Notched it about waist high on
> the side toward which it was leaning, cut from the other side, and it
> fell most of the way over but came to rest on its branches and didn’t
> break cleanly away from the stump.   [Would have been smarter to
> bore-cut most of it, now that I think about it.]  I moved out away
> from the stump and started sawing off the outer branches where I could
> reach them, but the chainsaw ran out of gas. After filling it back up
> I went to tighten the chain tension, and while fooling around with
> that managed to burn the knuckle of one finger on the chainsaw
> muffler.  Might have uttered a minor curse word.
>
> I went back to continue working my way around the fallen tree, cutting
> where I could, but there were a lot of heavy branches out of my reach
> extending high up in the air and I worried the tree would roll over
> toward me if I kept cutting away what I could reach while the trunk
> was still hanging precariously off the stump.    So I decided to cut a
> short section out of the leaned-over trunk right next to the stump so
> it could fall free, and I could then work on getting everything safely
> down to ground level from that end.   Since one end of the trunk was
> resting on the stump and the other end was resting on its branches I
> figured the heavy end near the stump would want to drop down, meaning
> the underside of the tree would be in tension, so I cut a notch on the
> upper side and then began sawing up from the underside.   Turned out
> I’d guessed wrong and the underside was in compression, and the saw
> kerf closed and bound up the chainsaw bar tight as could be.  
> Definitely brought out some curse words.
>
> I separated the chainsaw from the bar (learned that lesson once
> before), leaving the bar and chain hanging there in the partially cut
> tree, and went to get the Super M and the log chain.   I hooked the
> chain to the farthest-out end of a decent-sized branch way out far
> away from the stump, intending to pull the whole thing around so it’d
> drop away from the stump and release my bound-up saw bar, but just
> then the Super M sputtered and died, out of gas.  I hate to overdo the
> curse words, but temptation was strong.
>
> By then it was starting to get dark and my gas cans were a long walk
> away, but I had about half a gallon of chainsaw gas left.   I poured
> that in the tank, started the tractor back up, and pulled the top of
> the tree around.   Sure enough, the trunk dropped cleanly off the
> stump, so I shut the tractor off, celebrated my hard-fought victory,
> and went back over to reclaim my chainsaw bar and do some final fast
> cutting just to show that tree who was boss… only to find the bar
> driven straight down into the ground like a tent stake under the
> weight of the trunk.   Guess it’s time to call it a day and go get
> cleaned up.
>
> Dean Vinson
>
> Saint Paris, Ohio
>

The one thing in your post that gave me pause Dean, was that you
mentioned you notched the tree at waist height. Others with more
knowledge may offer better advice, but I do not like notching at waist
height. You are not in a strong position doing that, and any kickback
may not be able to be handled, and could bypass your PPE. Hit the wrong
spot and you could have lost enough blood not to make it by the time
someone found you. I prefer to cut lower so my PPE chaps are in the
direct route of the saw should a kick back occur, generally on my knees.
You never know what your going to find hidden in those old farm trees.
My saw once  hit an old eye bolt that was buried in a 100 year old
Maple. Saw kicked like a gov't mule, but the anti-kickback save me from
any harm, chain was another matter.

Take Care,
Mike M

>
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