Harv
Elite Member
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2000
- Messages
- 3,371
- Tractor
- Kubota L2500DT Standard Transmission
To add to the list of dangers when dealing with the woods, have any of you encountered trees that fall up? If you have ever seen this happen you immediately know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, well, read on --
For many years our family spent the entire summer (6 or 7 weeks) at our cabin at a place called Kirkwood Lake off of highway 88 in the Sierras, about 45 minutes from Lake Tahoe. This area has some of the deepest snowfall in the country (30 feet or more) which produces some interesting problems, like pushing cabins off their foundations (I hated that one) and sometimes making trees quite top-heavy.
So, one summer when I was about 10, a large pine tree (3-1/2 ft diameter) was discovered to have fallen across the main lake trail. An otherwise healthy tree, it was apparantly the weight of the snow combined with heavy winds that brought it down in one piece. The roots were still attached, but the tree itself was laying flat on the ground.
Attracted to the sound of chain saws as I was, I came running to watch them limb and cut the tree into sections. The man running the saw was someone I knew, so I made myself comfortable sitting on the lower section of the tree a safe distance from where he was cutting. After he lopped off a couple of 10-foots sections I got off and walked around to what had been the top of the tree so I could count the rings (and get sap all over myself). I then watched from that vantage point while he cut off the next 10-foot section. As soon as he finished that cut, we were both shocked and stunned when the remaining 20 feet of the tree shot straight up into the air, back to its original vertical position.
We both stood dead silent with our mouths hanging open for several minutes as we looked first at the tree and then at each other and then back to the tree. I saw the color drain from his face (mine too, I suppose) as we slowly realized that if I had remained seated on that tree I would have been quite literally launched into the next county.
Not sure what the lesson here is -- just one more reason to expect the unexpected and try to think things through when dealing with trees, even after they have fallen.
For many years our family spent the entire summer (6 or 7 weeks) at our cabin at a place called Kirkwood Lake off of highway 88 in the Sierras, about 45 minutes from Lake Tahoe. This area has some of the deepest snowfall in the country (30 feet or more) which produces some interesting problems, like pushing cabins off their foundations (I hated that one) and sometimes making trees quite top-heavy.
So, one summer when I was about 10, a large pine tree (3-1/2 ft diameter) was discovered to have fallen across the main lake trail. An otherwise healthy tree, it was apparantly the weight of the snow combined with heavy winds that brought it down in one piece. The roots were still attached, but the tree itself was laying flat on the ground.
Attracted to the sound of chain saws as I was, I came running to watch them limb and cut the tree into sections. The man running the saw was someone I knew, so I made myself comfortable sitting on the lower section of the tree a safe distance from where he was cutting. After he lopped off a couple of 10-foots sections I got off and walked around to what had been the top of the tree so I could count the rings (and get sap all over myself). I then watched from that vantage point while he cut off the next 10-foot section. As soon as he finished that cut, we were both shocked and stunned when the remaining 20 feet of the tree shot straight up into the air, back to its original vertical position.
We both stood dead silent with our mouths hanging open for several minutes as we looked first at the tree and then at each other and then back to the tree. I saw the color drain from his face (mine too, I suppose) as we slowly realized that if I had remained seated on that tree I would have been quite literally launched into the next county.
Not sure what the lesson here is -- just one more reason to expect the unexpected and try to think things through when dealing with trees, even after they have fallen.