DmansPadge
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2004
- Messages
- 1,678
- Location
- Orange, TX
- Tractor
- Kubota B2620, Toro 2000 Series Z Master
I recently bought a 1/2 acre next to me that was heavily wooded. I had a dozer and BH out there to handle the big majority of the work. There were about 7 trees that I wanted to take out that were to close to my keepers for the backhoe to dig around. No problem... I'll cut em down and put them on the burn piles.
I did all of them except one with no problems whatsoever. The only one left was towards the front of my property and real close to the power lines. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I had some other things to do and I was waiting on my B-I-L to show up. He has a 200ft rope that we have used a bunch to take out trees that had to fall in a particular direction. The day went on and he hadn't shown up yet. I had most everything else I needed to do done and was getting a bit anxious.
So in all my wisdom... I figured "Heck... I can do it by myself." It was a sweet gum that was tall but small in diameter. I cut a notch and figured I'd shove it over with my FEL. It was a bit wet and I was simply spinning the tires. So I notched it a bit more. I tried shoving it over again and it broke loose at the base. No problem yet. The FEL was holding it in place. I put the parking brake on and let it stay until I could find something to tie the tree off with. The only thing I could come up with was about a 15' piece of rope. I got it up as high as I could on the tree and tied it off to a big pine near it. So I got back on the tractor and slowly eased off of the tree. I figured I'd come around the back side of the tree and push the bottom out from under it. No sooner than I could react it starting coming my way... my instict was to try again to shove it over.... I did, but, it didn't help. I knew what was coming... so I pulled the kill cable and bailed off the tractor. Once I was in the clear I turned to look back in time to see the tree graze the power lines and end up laying on the cable TV line. About 1 second later a block down the road I heard a load boom.
I ran to my cell phone and called the power company. Turns out it blew the main fuse at the end of the road and no real harm was done. The lineman told me I could go ahead and cut the tree off the cable line... and before I could crank up my saw he had the power back on.
Had I waited for my brother in law... it never would have happened. So I learned my lesson. Thankfully that was the last tree I had to cut and no harm was done.
I did all of them except one with no problems whatsoever. The only one left was towards the front of my property and real close to the power lines. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I had some other things to do and I was waiting on my B-I-L to show up. He has a 200ft rope that we have used a bunch to take out trees that had to fall in a particular direction. The day went on and he hadn't shown up yet. I had most everything else I needed to do done and was getting a bit anxious.
So in all my wisdom... I figured "Heck... I can do it by myself." It was a sweet gum that was tall but small in diameter. I cut a notch and figured I'd shove it over with my FEL. It was a bit wet and I was simply spinning the tires. So I notched it a bit more. I tried shoving it over again and it broke loose at the base. No problem yet. The FEL was holding it in place. I put the parking brake on and let it stay until I could find something to tie the tree off with. The only thing I could come up with was about a 15' piece of rope. I got it up as high as I could on the tree and tied it off to a big pine near it. So I got back on the tractor and slowly eased off of the tree. I figured I'd come around the back side of the tree and push the bottom out from under it. No sooner than I could react it starting coming my way... my instict was to try again to shove it over.... I did, but, it didn't help. I knew what was coming... so I pulled the kill cable and bailed off the tractor. Once I was in the clear I turned to look back in time to see the tree graze the power lines and end up laying on the cable TV line. About 1 second later a block down the road I heard a load boom.
I ran to my cell phone and called the power company. Turns out it blew the main fuse at the end of the road and no real harm was done. The lineman told me I could go ahead and cut the tree off the cable line... and before I could crank up my saw he had the power back on.
Had I waited for my brother in law... it never would have happened. So I learned my lesson. Thankfully that was the last tree I had to cut and no harm was done.