Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Felling A Too Close To The House Oak

I like trimming trees,  ...cutting them down, ... not so much.
Being high in a tree, choosing the limbs to remove so light reaches my forest floor and allows brushy shrubby browse to grow ... well, now that is sheer pleasure for me.

Killing a tree is different and I tend to let them grow as long as possible even if I know they are in a location that is not desirable.
This is a flaw in my character and the reason my garden is too shady.

I finally decided to take out the large laurel oak growing about 15 feet from my porch. It was a twiggy little sapling when we built the house back in 1989, but it grew to shade the entire south yard. There were some weak deep-V branches that worried me along with it's proximity to the house and the drainfield.
(Can you hear me justifying the death of this tree?)
Also, it's acorn production was legendary and the entire yard was like walking on marbles (Ouch!) if you were barefoot, ... which I usually am.

Once, in the not so distant past, this tree was the east end of a awesome kid zipline that stretched for 50 feet to another mighty oak. I suppose the good service and kid joy that the  tree and zipline provided was also a factor in letting this tree go so long in the "wrong" spot.

Last weekend, I debated the merits of just trimming off the deep-V branch that shaded most of the yard, but it was tree sized itself and a much more dangerous job than a total felling.

So, I took the whole thing down and now have more oak than I could burn in 5 Florida winters.

I wore the GoPro on the job so the video below shows some of the highlights.

Note #1: The baby hickory tree in the video will actually be moved farther out this fall when it goes dormant.

Note # 2: The video is not meant to be a "How To" instructional video. It's just what I do. Tree surgery is not rocket science ... although you would think so if you priced what a tree surgeon charges.

7 comments:

lisa said...

Looks like you still have plenty of trees for shade. We have a couple of trees out front that need to come down also but unfortunately when they do it will leave the house without good shading on the south side. That was a big tree!

Anonymous said...

Hey FC,

Long time.

If my dad had done this the tree would have fallen on the house. He once tore a chain link fence down with one of those machines that uproot things. Lordy, I miss that man!

Patio

Anonymous said...

Great video. We have oak trees here in our Midwest neighborhood, among other trees. Right now, the two oaks directly across the street are swarming with honey bees and the hum is so loud you can here it on our side. Not sure what that is all about.
Momadness

roger said...

nice job. there you are up a long ladder again. i would have been content with arranging the pull line from the ground.

R.Powers said...

Lisa,
I can already see a difference in the previously shaded plants on that side of the house.

Patio,
LOL! I can relate.

Momadness,
How nice to have swarms of honey Bees!

roger,
I DO love my stratosphericaladder!

Anonymous said...

I know! I remember when it surfaced in the US a few years back and it has been quite a cause for concern.
Momadness

Doug Taron said...

We do a fair bit of tree felling as part of our prairie restoration work, so all of this looked rather familiar. Well done!