yesterday's fun

murphy4trees

TreeHouser
Joined
Nov 28, 2008
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4,102
Location
Philadelphia PA suburbs
Put 13 ash trees on the ground then home and grabbed the grinder and got a $300 stump ground just as it was getting dark. The neighbor came over and tried to stand in the way of the machine as I was almost at the trailer to load up. I was in no mood and he had to jump out of the way cause I didn't stop the machine...

But that wasn't the only run in with civilians..

Had permission to use the neighbor's yard to bring this ash tree down. He didn't know I was planning on jumping the fence. I really should have had a pull line in it cause it was too close to balanced to eyeball which way it was going for sure. But the guys had gone home and I wouldn't need to come back to this job once this tree was down. So I figured I'd cut a little bit and see if it looked like it was going to go, which it did show the back cut opening up just a hint. Looking good at that point I tickled the hinge a couple time to get it going, and the tree sat right down on the bar, meaning NO MORE HINGE! There was a moment of feeling helpless and hoping it would go to the lay and not on the fence, and then the relief that comes when it does.. Probably was a bad decision to cut the tree as I was tired and should have just gone home.

She did go to the lay and looked like it had plenty of distance to clear the fence, but the wide branching up top caused a little spring back and the but ended up between the first two rails on the fence, not quite touching the wire. I expected it to clear the fence and push back a little, but I didn't think it was going to be that close... You can see the neighbor walking out in the photo and he threw a fit... Checked the fence twice then still came out with a camera to take pictures for his insurance company...
 

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earlier I had intentionally barber chaired a couple of small ash tree.... wide open drop zone so no need for directional control and the first one, that stayed up, was easier to buck up. the second rolled of the pivot point. I then cut a chunk of the stump off and used it for a small step up to make the next cut.
 

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This one had a good bit of side lean and I definitely don't trust ash to hinge well, but it looked like it even if it went the wrong way it would have only been the very tips to hit and not enough to damage the post and rail fence, so I cut it without a pull line ( or those wedges I haven't seen in months), and then ended up using a long stick to push on it from about 10' high for the leverage. Had to put the stick down and cut a little more a few times until she went.
 

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I was working alone to stay ahead of the clean up crew... they get it done ... this is the final clean up of all five trees in that bed..

this pic is at 4:24 while the tapered hinge leaner and the two barber-chaired trees were dropped by 2:57. I still had two more trees to drop which we did with pull lines which took a while to set. So that was probably and hour of clean up for all 5 trees, just staging all the wood and brush in the cul de sac. This was a backyard ...
 

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This was at one of the other neighbor's houses... He asked f I was trying to do. I said of course... He asked me if Patrick Eppps would be with the crew today. I said Pat moved to North Carolina 4 or 5 years ago.
 

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How bout a wedge to prevent problems in pic #1
 
One of "those" days, eh?
What was the neighbor trying to do by standing in the way of you loading the stump grinder? Was he the one unhappy about the fence?
 
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Two different neighbors....
After the guy in the way of the stump grinder jumped out of the way the first time, I stopped so he could say something.... He told me he was a township commissioner and he "needed to know what was going on around here", as he walked back in front of the machine....... I just hit the controls and made him jump again.... Thank God those machines are slow.... :)

And ya, I should have dug a few wedges out before going to this job.... A wedge would have kept that hinge in tact to the lay

It was actually 17 trees, 8 drops and 9 cut and chuck from the bucket.. nothing was lowered.
 
That ash in the front is crying out for deadwooding. And is the one on the right -- is that splitting?
 
I didn't think you mentioned if the ones in the back had Ash Borer. We've deadwooded ashes before if they don't show signs -- esp. in the front where the homeowner wants to clean up the property and increase "curb appeal."
 
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This guy wasn't much interested in curb appeal or he wouldn't have asked me to put a small mountain of logs in his front yard...

Still LOL from Rocky's post
 
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How much sense does it make to deadwood a tree that is 100% guaranteed to die within the next 3 years... Maybe if the owner plans on selling the house next year. We suggest removal unless the owner is prepared to treat the tree indefinitely
 
Here in Kansas, there's a lot of German influence and general strongly felt peer pressure to have tidy, well-kept properties. A lot of neighborhood associations in affluent areas apply pressure to keep trees trimmed up. But most homeowners here in decent neighborhoods have their own urge to keep trees deadwooded, as long as it is clear they are not on their way out. I was just trying to get a sense of how things go in the City of Brotherly Love; that and to engage in congenial conversation.
 
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