This is at least the 3rd time I was puzzled about how to get a tree/limb down SAFELY (without me ending up paralyzed). Plus, I also seem to always deal with these when I am on my own (with no one around to call 9-1-1).

This limb while not all that large was snapped off and hung up in other branches between the garage and the house.

I noticed this up there a few days ago. It’s not that big but could definitely injure someone falling from high in the tree so I contemplated my options.

  1. To saw it clean, I might have been able to reach it with my tallest ladder set up in the back of my truck bed backed up to the tree. But there is nothing worse than trying to make a cut with a chainsaw while precariously perched high in the air.
  2. The other option was to try to throw a rope around it to pull it down. To get close enough to it would also require the ladder in the pickup trick but wouldn’t be nearly as high and a simple throwing motion is better than operating a chainsaw.

Luckily, nature AGAIN took care of it for us, as it was laying on the ground when we got up this morning.

Although the “nub” will still bother my sense of order and should be cleaned up, the fact it is 40′ in the air will temper my urge to get after it.

As with the large dead pine across the field from the 1st above photo, that I sawed nearly through and ended up binding my saw. I was able to pound a wedge in to free the saw but the tree remained standing. Rather than accept any more risk, I simply backed away and left it there at the edge of our field. In a matter of 2 or 3 days, the wind did the rest. Once it fell, I retrieved my wedge and cut it up for firepit fuel. These have already been used for a few Viking Funerals for dead critters.

The other was another large pine that blew against it’s neighbors on the edge of the woods behind the shop. My saw was too small for the trunk so a neighbor friend came over with a larger saw to saw it free from the root ball still mostly embedded in the ground. We then chained it to his truck but there was no way we were pulling it down – it stayed hung up in the trees. My next idea was to wait until haying season and try to pull it down with the tractor we hired for that. Since haying season was still months away though, I wasn’t keen about keeping everything away from there. Luckily, the wind dropped the tree to the ground a day later. With the return of high tick season, I tabled further work there and still have plenty to cut up when cooler weather returns in the fall. There is also a nice oak that the pine blew into. It didn’t kill it (yet) but that has a notable lean to it as well and I’ll be harvesting that one for heating wood as the ample pine available is only burned outside in the firepit.

Fun times!