a widowmaker is vanquished (attached pics)

**Jim S** · 03-28-2010, 17:37

We dropped a 24" diameter Ponderosa in the front yard. We intended for it to drop across the yard and the street. I was backing away in my Toyota with a rope attached high in the tree, when this puppy started to fall right at me. Suddenly it dawned on me that I didn't have the time or rope to back out of the way and about that time it was coming at me faster so I jerked into first and pulled it a few feet to the right to take tension off the rope and get out of the way, and the tree hit about ten feet to the left side of the truck and the top of the tree broke out when it hit another Pondo, which kept the first one from coming down on my neighbors SUV parked across the street. We quit then. The next day I came back and my neighbor had left a note that he would take the whole tree if I didn't want it, so I only had to make one cut..

**spklbuk** · 03-28-2010, 19:28

Originally Posted by canoeski

Gives " hang'n out the woodshed" a whole new meaning.

That looks a lot like my '92 Toy w/ same deercatcher on the front!

Nice location. Thanks for sharing.

'91, had it since it was new and they don't make em like ours anymore! Just like yours, my Toy could tell some tales if it could talk...um..wait a minute, maybe it's best it can't.

**spklbuk** · 03-28-2010, 19:32

Originally Posted by krugd

Yeh, it sure feels great when they come down where you want them. I had a fair-sized maple die at the corner of my driveway and the road. Wire running along the other side of the road - so wanted to drop it in the yard. I cut a good wedge out and worked the back cut - the tree wouldn't fall. I left my wife to stop traffic if the tree looked like it would come down the wrong way and hunted up a good wedge. Eventually I pounded in the wedge and and it went over in the correct direction. Only about an inch of tree had been left uncut and it was balancing with that. Sometimes those dead trees are the worse.

I'm glad yours came down as planned. Have fun hanging back there.

Shew! Sounds like a close one. I've considered trying wedges in the past, but never had the cajones. Glad it worked out well.

And thanks, I will.

**spklbuk** · 03-28-2010, 19:40

Originally Posted by Jim S

We dropped a 24" diameter Ponderosa in the front yard. We intended for it to drop across the yard and the street. I was backing away in my Toyota with a rope attached high in the tree, when this puppy started to fall right at me. Suddenly it dawned on me that I didn't have the time or rope to back out of the way and about that time it was coming at me faster so I jerked into first and pulled it a few feet to the right to take tension off the rope and get out of the way, and the tree hit about ten feet to the left side of the truck and the top of the tree broke out when it hit another Pondo, which kept the first one from coming down on my neighbors SUV parked across the street. We quit then. The next day I came back and my neighbor had left a note that he would take the whole tree if I didn't want it, so I only had to make one cut..

Whoa, pucker time! Quick thinking and landed just the way you planned it!

**spklbuk** · 03-30-2010, 18:52

How's this for precision felling? Stump is the nearest block in the foreground. The bole fell along the path from stump to spkldoe. Please note the distance scaled between the trees by the saw farthest to the back. Not a single limb on another tree damaged. Man, it is way better to be lucky than good!!

Good hanging awaits ye, y'all come on over.

WV · 03-30-2010, 20:24

Cables are great, especially if they're long enough to run through a snatch block and and off to one side so you can pull from outside the drop area (if you've correctly located the drop area, that is.) Wedges can be used with great artistry, too. A forestry professor I knew used to tell his students that a successful tree-felling is one in which no one gets killed.