Felling The Sick Tree

We have the bulldozer across the road and the ditch dug that is about two feet deep and thirty feet long standing open to dry out a bit. The bulls are sequestered on the far side on the bull barn with its surrounding pasture. It is time to get the sick tree taken care of before the danger of it falling into the road becomes a real issue.

We asked one of my brothers to help with the task. Mike stood on top of the cab of the dozer to loop a cable high up the tree and then drove the dozer way out into the bull pen. The cable will be tightened as the tree is being wedged over to keep from losing it toward the road, but it still a danger. By having my brother help, it clears up both Marilyn and I to take over traffic control. We will close the road from traffic while they work at wedging the tree in the direction that does not land on the road or take out our electric fence that keeps the bulls from the roadway. Since the tree happens to be on a bend in the road, neither Marilyn or I can see each other and we cannot see the actual process that is going on in the bull pen other than Marilyn can see the top of the bulldozer way out in the pen.

With the dozer idling on standby, I hear Mike start up the saw. I know that he will cut a wedge piece out of the base of the tree in the direction of the way he wants it to lay down, this is called the under cut. After the under cut is precisely how he wants it, he will firm up the winch and tighten the cable high in the tree.

With the safety cones out and the road closed, the first vehicle that comes down the road is an Amazon truck. I wave him to a stop and let him know that we are taking down a danger tree and we will let traffic flow as soon as the tree is on the ground. Because the truck is a big diesel and the motor is running, I can no longer hear what is going on in the bull pen.

I was told that Mike started the cut that fell the big tree while my brother tapped in wedges with a falling axe (another precaution to tip the tree in the correct direction). Halfway through what is left of the tree, Mike returned to the dozer and again tightened up the cable while my brother continued to wedge the tree.

Without being able to see or hear what was going on from my vantage point I could not be sure how they were doing with the process until the noise of the tree dropping was loud  enough to be heard over the line up on my side by the big diesel, two pickups and a loaded log truck.

It was a successful drop. The tree had drifted as it fell because of only having live limbs on one side, but Mike was able to get the top within five feet of the planned target.

We appreciate every reader we have and love it when you spread the word about SchmidlinAngusFarms, fill out the FOLLOW information so you get each story right to your email each day and/or leave comments about the stories. I would also like to take a moment to thank those who click on the icon to do shopping with the affiliate, (clicking on the affiliate icon does not make you purchase, only gets you the their site) and sometimes I get a small commission from your purchases if you do shop, without a cost to you!

As always, Prime and special codes work with the icon and you do not have to purchase any item that I promote. Please consider using my link when you do your cyber shopping. Thank you for your support