Man Vs. Tree

[GitRDone]

Actually the felling cut should be 1" - 2" above deepest point of the notch cut. I also cut the notch cut at least 40% into the trunk. The wedge does help, esp if the tree has any lean to it. But I always cut with the lean, unless there is something in the way. Then it is "prune to the trunk", and cut the trunk sections out until you are clear of the obstruction. Once clear drop what is left of the trunk in the natural lean direction. This is is what I was taught when I did this part time in my younger days. I dropped trees almost weekly for 10 years. When your full time job only pays $20K annually (northwestern Louisiana in the late 1970's), you do what it takes to pay the bills.

From tall skinny (3' diameter) pines to to large diameter water and pin oaks. Some of those old oak trees were so hard that the chain saw teeth would send sparks and dull very quickly. Many of the large oaks were massive at the ground, and the trunks were typically hollow in the middle.

Exhausting and dangerous work, but you slept well!

Yeah, joke was funnier the first time but I get it. Nope, this live oak is 100+ years old and the trunk is as wide as my truck, so she ain't goin nowhere. I can tell what time of year it is by the deposits on my hood and trunk, but I love that tree.

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[TJC]

Yeah, joke was funnier the first time but I get it. Nope, this live oak is 100+ years old and the trunk is as wide as my truck, so she ain't goin nowhere. I can tell what time of year it is by the deposits on my hood and trunk, but I love that tree.

War story on:

This was way back in the late 1970's...
My first experience with cutting gown a live oak was in my front yard out by the road right by my driveway. I had 4 of these trees on my tiny 75' x 110' lot, and they covered the entire lot and hung over my 1000 sq ft house. Made for cooler summer days and no greass to cut in Shreveport, LA. Add a whole house fan with open windows and the breeze was quite pleasant.

Anyway, my wife backed the car into that live oak out by the road, and did a real number on the back of that Delta 88. After repairing the car I took it upon myself to remove that tree from the premises. The power lines ran down the side of the road within 20' of that tree so I knew I had to be careful. I got my Cajun buddy to come over and give me a hand. We called the power, cable, and phone companies and told them of our plans. They said they'd be out to move everything out of the way just in case things didn't go smoothly. I have forgotten the exact time but it was mid morning and those boys hadn't shown up yet. We thought that maybe we should get on with the job and began trimming out those big limbs.

My Cajun boy climbed that tree like a monkey and lowered a rope to me to attach the chain saw to. He pulled it up and began to cut away the limbs. He was doing a fine job too until I noticed him starting to cut a 15"-20' diameter limb over his head! He was up about 15' up standing on a 3' diameter lower limb cutting away. I yelled at him to stop, but he couldn't hear me over the chain saw! I panicked and started chunking rocks at him to get his attention,,,, all to no avail!

Still yelling at the top of my lungs at Brady to stop cutting I heard a snap as that limb broke loose! It slid down the the tree trunk and wedged on the limb Brady had been standing on! A smaller 4" limb growing from the big limb caught Brady dead square in the chest!

Next thing I know I see Brady in the air swinging his arms trying to keep his balance, and his feet down... chainsaw still running wide open! He landed hard feet first on the concrete, crumbled, and lay spread out like an eagle.

I ran over to him and grabbed his shirt collar screaming at him... His eyes rolled up into his head!

I thought he was dying for sure. Still kneeling by him, I looked over at the chainsaw... it had stopped and the bar was at a right angle to the motor (brand new Poulan too (Made in Shrevepoort)). I looked back over at Brady and asked him again if he was OK. His reply, "I can't feel my ass!"

Short of it is that only the chainsaw got broken, and 15 minutes later Brady was going back up that tree! I tried to talk him out of it, but he wasn't listening. This time around he did tie a rope around his waist and then around the tree.

We cut all the major limbs, but screwed up on the stump, dropping it on the power lines moments before the line crews showed up. Darkened 2 blocks on our street! They repaired them faster than I could imagine... and didn't bill me either!

We left a 20' tall stump up until the next day. The bottom of the stump was hollow and big enough that we could stand upright in the middle (just one of us). We notched it, and cut on it for several hours, then attached a rope near to the top and used my 66' Chevy II to try to drop it. I yanked on it over and over again, It would rock but not fall. Finally cut the base enoigh that the Chevy pulled it over! My Chevy looked like this one, same color too! with the same corvette rings and center hubs too.

I had an old Chevy long bed truck that I had converted the bed into a trailer. We could only roll a single 2' section of the trunk into that bed to haul off. It was shoulder high!

I sold that house in 1980. Those tree was massive then. I just looked in googlemaps, and the tree in the back is still there ~50 years later, the one that I left in the front yard is now gone.

The dark green tree in the center is still there. They did remove the lower limbs that hung over the roof. That roof never saw the sunshine when I lived there.

It is the last of those big trees on the block.

Brady is still around and kicking too! Has a llama Farm, Self Storage buildings, a junk yard and auto repair shop, and a used car lot, all west of Nashville!

War story off:

 

[RedDakooter05]

Unless theres damage to the paint, adding a seal there in the windshield should be fine


Companies don't out molding there due to cost cutting not rusting issues.

Nissan still uses seals on the windshields and no rust issues.

 

[subquark]

There is a huge live oak over my driveway that loves to drop leaves and other crud on my truck, and much of it ends up in the large panel gaps between the roof and windshield. This pic doesn't show much, but in Jan/ Feb (aka Autumn in Fla) the buildup is pretty impressive.

After scraping out the crud for the umpteenth time I decided to do something about it, so I purchased some rubber hose and filled the gaps.

I believe the hose is standard windshield washer hose, it is soft sided and fairly easy to push into the crevice with a plastic putty knife. I wiped the hose down with some 303 before installing.

I also filled the roof panel gaps above the doors.

Done. We'll see how the installation works long-term, but so far I am happy with it.

Brilliant!

I will look at doing the same - now if I could stop the acorns from making dents ... =(

 

[RedlandRanger]

I don't know how I missed this post - I have fir trees all around and the fir needles get stuck in all those grooves and are a PITA to clean out. I'm going to look into doing this soon. I will just need to make sure I clean out the grooves well first (I need to do that anyway).

 

[subquark]

Brilliant!

I will look at doing the same - now if I could stop the acorns from making dents ... =(

Just got my first-ever Ford Ownership Survey

And for "tell us what you like least" it was a tough call.

• No trailer brake control with tow package?
• Ridiculously bed rake engineering?
• Irresistibly-yummy-to-mice wiring?
• No engine cover, despit2 TSB?
• No tailgate damper?!?
• Add your own ...

I went with "sheet metal too thin, dents by acorns"

LOL, I'm sure the bed rake engineers and water-in-oil guys will get right on it!

another Soupie dump run!

 

[GitRDone]

Just got my first-ever Ford Ownership Survey

And for "tell us what you like least" it was a tough call.

• No trailer brake control with tow package?
• Ridiculously bed rake engineering?
• Irresistibly-yummy-to-mice wiring?
• No engine cover, despit2 TSB?
• No tailgate damper?!?
• Add your own ...

I went with "sheet metal too thin, dents by acorns"

LOL, I'm sure the bed rake engineers and water-in-oil guys will get right on it!

another Soupie dump run!

(Adding) No moldings in roof and windshield gaps

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