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TR: Tree work in VT

Glenn

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We had a big arse Poplar tree behind our place in VT. It was close to the stream and still growing. We were concerned with the size of the tree and the damage it would cause if it fell on the house. Godforbid we were in it...it wouldn't be pretty.

Long story short, we had 3 estimates; one insanely hight, one reasonable and one that was never put into writing.

The big day was Monday. Along with the "Tree of life" (as Mrs Glenn called it) we were having four pines taken down. All the work would be done with a crane...a really big crane. You should have heard the rumble as these guys rolled down the street at 8:15 on a crisp fall morning.....the big crane, two trucks (one towing a chipper) and a grapple truck. It was sweet! I was in my glory.

They set up the crane, then moved it. This thing was huge.

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First order of business: The pines. These took no time at all. They hoisted the climber in the tree, he'd hook up the rigging, make a cut, the crane moved the section, dropped it in the road, they attached a winch line from the chipper to the section and the chipper did the rest. They didn't even have to limb it. If the wood was under 16" in diameter, it got chipped. The chipper was a turbo diesel beast.

Climber in the pine:
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Here's a view of the chipper after the pines were gone; looking off the deck:
IMG_3319_Medium.jpg


Next, it was the big tree. This took quite awhile...the tree was tall and had a lot of branches. The crane operator said it was close to it's max reach, so they really had to watch the weight of each pick. The climber used a wistle to signal the crane operator. There was a lot going on...the big tree in the back, guys were running the chipper and they had another guy limbing some pines at our neighbor's house.

IMG_3308_Medium.jpg


Here's a shot I took when they crew was taking a lunch break:
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I thought they'd take the trunk down with a big 100cc saw and a huge bar. They used decent sized Husky with a 24"(estimated) bar. It did perfectly fine. He cut a notch, cut around the ouside, did a few plunge cuts, used some wedges and then he and another guy pulled it down.

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Here are the rounds laying in the road; waiting for the grapple truck. You can see the two guys in the back of the pic. The stump at it's widest point was a tick over 4 feet.

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They were cool enough to cut us two rounds so we could make some end tables. We did this before with some wood the previous owner had left behind. This is much bigger though. These are laying in my trailer behind my quad. They take up some realestate.

IMG_3353_Medium.jpg


The crew did an amazing job. They were really professional, cleaned up and were just all around good guys. The back part of our yard is a hill, my wife and I had a great viewing area and stayed out of their way. We actually ended up doing some land clearing ourselves, so it was a pretty busy day....but an awesome day off.
 
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drjeff

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Nice TR there Glenn! I've been waiting for the crane shots since you sent me the BB Messenger pics on Monday!

Can't wait to see those end slabs all finished up as tables with some cold beers on them in the coming months!
 

Glenn

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I'll make sure I get some pics of the tables when they're done. We're currently "engineering" the designs in our heads.

Looking forward to getting up there and seeing how much brighter things will be. We saw a lot more light at lunch time, but they were only about halfway done with the big tree. By the time they had finished, the sun was lower and the clouds rolled in a bit.
 

tjf67

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Cool stuff. How many rings on those table tops you cut? You gonna rent a back hoe and dig those stumps up?
 

Glenn

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I'm going to try to count the rings in the stump this weekend. When talking with the guy after, he estimated it was about 50 years old. If that's the case, the tree is just a few years older than the house itself.

We're gonna have the stump ground out. The tree guy has one of those grinders mounted on tracks. He estimated it was going to take a few hours to get all that done.

A backhoe wouldn't work. If you look at the pic of the back of the house....the area where the deck staircase comes down...there's a rock wall that runs to the stream, so no way to get down. On the other side, that's our septic tank, so that's a no go too.
 

Glenn

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I know. part of me was bummed it was chipped. I'm not a wood snob either...I'll burn anything if it's dry.

However...(here comes the "but" clause). Those guys were operating like a well oiled machine. It would have slowed them down quite a bit if they had to limb and buck those sections vs winching into the chipper. Time is money and I'm sure it would have cost us more to save the wood. Don't get me wrong, I love splitting wood and playing with the chainsaw...and would have loved to have more wood to cut and split. But when I can get a cord of hardwood split and delivered for $160-180...it didn't make much sense for me to pay a few hundred extra for softwood I'd have to process on my own. And I couldn't have dont much with those huge rounds. I don't even have a log splitter..and if I did, it would have to be a monster to split those. Even though Poplar is a softer wood, rounds like that aren't easy to move around and process.
 

BigJay

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... $160-180...

WOW!

We paid 120$ last year... and i thought it was expensive... Sometimes we can get really dry hardwood for 80$ delivered in the spring... but then again, most years, we "harvest" our own just by cutting up the deadfalls...

...plus playing with the chainsaw is fun! You get to wear all kinds of protective gear and you get respect from anyone and anything... how killer is that! True from that as well: :uzi:
 

Glenn

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$60-80...that's a damn good price. In CT currently, a cord is about $225-$250. So $160-180 seems like a good price. Under $100 would be a steal!

I'll be cutting again soon. We found our other property pin and it turns out we own a bit more land than we thought. Sweet.
 

SKIQUATTRO

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$120 for a half delivered here on long island......i do have a contact for free wood, he's coming to dinner sat night......coincidence, i think not
 

Glenn

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It's expensive on LI...I'm always amazed by the prices I see on a stove forum I go to.
 

from_the_NEK

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I'm going to try to count the rings in the stump this weekend. When talking with the guy after, he estimated it was about 50 years old. If that's the case, the tree is just a few years older than the house itself.

I counted 49 twice in your pic, but I'm assuming the rounds aren't from the base of the tree.
IMG_3353_Medium.jpg


Those growth rings must be huge to grow a tree that big in only 50 years. It would be cool to see a pic of quarter (or some other coin) placed on the rings for scale.
 

Glenn

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Thanks for counting! I'll take a pic of the stump. And I'll get a pic that shows size better. Oh wait...found one. This is next to the back of the foundation, which is made of block. Those are 2x4's near the rounds...they're big!

IMG00154-20101018-1730.jpg
 

NYDrew

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As much as I hate to see an old tree fall, I say good move. Tons of trees this fall have succumb to the wind near my apartment. One of which, if it fell the other way would have not been good.

Don't forget to plant another one, perhaps this time in a better location.
 

Glenn

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We did feel bad taking it down since it wasn't rotting like we originally thought. But as you can see, the A-Frame is't a big house....and that tree could have done some serious damange if it fell.

We've done a lot of work to the land up there. It had been unkept for a number of years, so we cleared out a lot of the smaller stuff.
 

drjeff

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We did feel bad taking it down since it wasn't rotting like we originally thought. But as you can see, the A-Frame is't a big house....and that tree could have done some serious damange if it fell.

We've done a lot of work to the land up there. It had been unkept for a number of years, so we cleared out a lot of the smaller stuff.

Having actually seen with my own 2 eyes, both that tree while it was still standing and it's proximity to not only Glenn's place, at also his neighbors place, a good call to take it down in a controlled fashion before it decided to come down in an uncontrolled event :eek:
 

Glenn

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I may have mentioned this before in the thread...but here goes...

That crane was about at it's limit for reach when taking down that tree. The problem was, some of the sections were too heavy for the pick, so they had to use a pulley system to guide the branches down. Fortunately, it was only a few sections. Had we waited to take it down, we may have needed a larger crane. We actually had an estimate where the guy thought we'd need the larger crane. The cost fo that larger crane was equal to what we paid to have this entire job done. :-o The cost of the larger crane and take down of just that one tree was over double what we paid for the 5 trees.
 
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