Oh boy, talk abut a suspenseful night last night.
Some friends of ours are about to remodel and wanted to take out a tree. The hub has taken down many trees...mostly in the woods where the only thing to worry about is getting out of the way if the tree has a mind of it's own on the way down.
This tree--was about 15 ft from the house, was about 100 ft tall and leaned back towards the house. They have several other trees in the yard all very tall, she has a yard full of wonderful displays of antique do-dads...and a gazeebo. (Julie- they moved the corvette far out of danger)
So...it is dark out- they hook up some lights--and it has started to rain. They have cables attached to chains, anchored to another tree and hitched to the back of a pickup to "pull the falling tree the right direction"....
The hub cuts the notch and starts the cut across when the cable snaps.....
The hub drops and runs...
and the tree stands as if nothing has happend. However, it is about 80% done and can't be left to the overnight elements.
Luckily, one of the guys has a new cable and runs home to get it...needless to say, by now the tension is high with our friends...
and it starts to really rain...
Friend returns, cable is hooked up, final cut is made...and that darned tree fell EXACTLY where the hub said it would...not damaging one thing in the yard!!
The hubs efforts saved our friends about $1000...which they are very thankful for.The hub will be returning to bring home the wood to process and sell.
(I am thankful we aren't over removing tree limbs from their living room this morning lol!)
This morning, another friend is picking up a big "skidder" from our yard, which is a spendy piece of equipment that we are storing for free for another friend...in exchange, the hub can use the skidder anytime he wants...which comes in handy with a wood business...
And tomorrow, the hub will be going to look at another friends property that has quite a bit of downed trees from this winter's winds...He has offered the wood for free just to get it cleaned off his land...
Another friend has offered to help process the wood in exchange for a couple of cords for next winter...
The hub has done a great job of forming a bartering community to pull from....it makes me wonder how different life would be if only we could live in a bartering world!
TIMBER! aka- bartering at it's best
March 8th, 2008 at 08:31 pm
March 8th, 2008 at 08:53 pm 1205009611
Hey, didn't know if you noticed but it is almost your Blogiversary on the 11the. Happy Blogiversary!
March 8th, 2008 at 09:26 pm 1205011561
i have a tree just as tall and maybe 30 feet from the house. It's a black locust, and i'll be paying $975 to have it cut down. My sis's friend has a sawmill and they asked me to have them cut the wood in 16 foot lengths. So they'll pick it up with a front end loader or whatever. I hear black locust makes good fence posts.And there's a lot of solid wood in this tree, 3 main trunks that right now are swaying in the 50 mph wind gusts. I can't wait to get some of my trees down here, safely.
March 8th, 2008 at 10:00 pm 1205013600
March 9th, 2008 at 03:15 am 1205032517