Pull down a high widow maker.

[kenmbz]

Like at festivities when you hear about people shooting up in the air and then read about someone hit with a mysterious bullet quite a distance away.

 

[5030]

I am a scaredy cat. Anything that I cannot let mother nature take care of, I hire someone who knows what they are doing and has insurance.

Exactly what I do, but in my case, I don't have to pay directly for it because it's a 'tit for tat' deal as I sharpen chipper knives as well as work on their chippers for them and sharpen their chain loops too. I don't mind trading at all actually and I'd never consider buying a High Ranger anyway, way beyond my financial capabilities.

Kind of have my pick of arborist companies though I do prefer one in particular. I call and he comes and puts the stuff on the ground and chips up the small stuff and I turn the rest into saw logs and my wood cutter friend who splits wood and sells it to the local campgrounds takes it away. Of course that only pertains to wood other than pine. The pine either gets chipped or I roast it. Over the years my wife and I have gotten to know personally, the one I prefer. Know his wife and kids as well. Nice folks and personally I think he's a bit crazy doing what he does but I for certain would never do it. For me, getting up on a step ladder makes me jittery. With Rick, being 60 feet up in a tree don't seem to bother him one bit. I prefer to just be a bystander and watch.

I have a rather large pile of chips in the side yard presently, cooking away.

 

[bgr]

Remember, if you are pulling with any kind of rope except Dacron, you will be dealing with a lot of stretch. If something breaks, the rope will come right at you, so fast you can hardly see it.(Don't ask how I know this).

Put about 20 feet of chain about 3/8 size between your rope and the attachment point on the tractor. If the rope breaks, the chain will instantly drop on the ground and direct the rope down so it misses you. Otherwise, the rope will snap back and hit the attachment point on the tractor(and anything near it, like $150. grilles, or you) really hard.

When using a rope, if it stretches at all, especially nylon, always think where it will go if it snaps, and put in something like chain to deaden the recoil.

 

[Jchonline]

I've got lots of these now after the latest storm. Do I hire out, or do I toss a lead over the branch to see if i can pull it out? What is the best way to "rope" a high branch?

Is the tree dead or just a few branches? Most likely the answer is cut the entire tree if dead, if not then hire an arborist. If the tree is really far away from anything valuable and you ahve hundreds of feet of rope to get you out of the danger zone..maybe. Putting tension on a limb and snapping it can cause all kinds of stuff to fly off and around.

 

[5030]

According to the laws of gravity, what goes up, must come down last time I checked.

Reminds me of a time long ago when we sliced the top off an old oxygen bottle and drilled a hole in the bottom and put a wad of black powder in the bottom with a cannon fuse and dropped a bowling ball down the cylinder and ignited the powder. The bowling ball went completely out of sight but I know it landed somewhere. We leaned it up against a picnic table and upon ignition, the recoil drove the bottle a couple feet in the ground. What became of the bowling ball I have no Idea and candidly don't want to know but I sure it came down somewhere, hopefully not through someone's roof or on their car or on them. One time was enough for that. Besides, only had one bowling ball to launch.

 

[Jchonline]

Lots of them that look like this. They are most all maples that cracked off branchings at the crown. They are in areas we use. I'm thinking a long rope tossed up, tied and tethered to the tractor a good distance away. Then see if I can pull them off and down. This is just one, I have about seven others that look the same. I could just cut all the trees down, but I want to save them. None are near utilities or structures.
View attachment 855817

If the trees are missing crowns they wont really grow the same. I would cut them down to make room for the full trees.

 

[5030]

Like I said previously, I just use one of my tractors and the loader bucket to push them over, so long as they are away from anything of value. If not, I call one of my arborist customers and have the deal with it.

We have quite a few deciduous trees surrounding the house that sometimes need trimmed or dead branches removed and I'm not about to do that, nit when I can have one of my customers do it with proper equipment and expertise. Maples are particularly good at dropping dead limbs that always seem to get hung up in the tree and require professional intervention and that ain't me at all.

Something about a High Ranger and hydraulic saw always impresses me.

I remember some years back, Rick took a huge leader off the popular tree in the front yard that was over the house and he was way, way up there sawing away and his crew was roping the cuts to the ground. Probably should have had him cut the darn thing completely down but my wife said no. All the wood from that went to my wood cutter buddy to split and sell to the local campgrounds. He's retired from his day job and uses the proceeds from his camp wood to supplement his Social Security. Not something I'd ever want to do anyway.

 

[JasperFrank]

Trying to shoot off a widow maker is almost entirely ineffective. A friend of mine was an avid reloader. He would hand cast 12 ga lead balls then max out the power charges. I never let him load one of my guns. He was a little crazy. And I'd stand well back from him shooting. We had an entirely safe shooting area, down slope, with hill in back, to knock off some broken branches of which we were high above, all on my property. We didn't have any deer slugs. The snags we were trying to break off were maybe 4 inch diameter. We shot all day with no fallen limbs. A blunt instrument like a 12 ga ball; there were so many misses, and other smaller cal bullets didn't seem to do anything to wood: they just go through. I don't think even hollow points worked.

 

[JasperFrank]

More survey, and every maple, all of them, have a snag somewhere. Most are very small, 2 inch dia.

 

[newbury]

We shot all day with no fallen limbs. A blunt instrument like a 12 ga ball; there were so many misses, and other smaller cal bullets didn't seem to do anything to wood: they just go through. I don't think even hollow points worked.

But it always works in the movies!

 

[JasperFrank]

But it always works in the movies!

Yes, we were doing our own Myth Busters before there was a Myth Busters.

 

[BlueKnife]

Interesting that you, Blue Knife would think that a fellow tractor owner who you don't know would shoot at the tree up in the air. We always aim level or down at the base from a direction that gives us a good backstop. The Mauser will penetrate about 14" of oak with surplus ammo A MN maybe 12'.

Not going to stand under a tree that is intertwined with another and broken at the base. and hope that I can predict which way it will fall or jackknife.

The only prerequisite to being a "fellow tractor owner" is the ability to pay for one. It has nothing to do with a person's competence or knowledge of gun safety or ballistics. Good to know that you aren't shooting up in the air. As someone who took down hazardous trees for a living for a couple decades, I can't imagine any scenario where shooting at the base of a hung up tree or branch would make sense, unless the intent is purely recreational (which is a fine reason).

 

[AnotherBueller]

Use a bow and arrow. Tie a small long rope to the arrow, get it over the branch, and then pull a larger rope as required to attach a larger rope.

I use 90+ lb test fishing line, doesn't drag the arrow down as much.

 

[JasperFrank]

I use Mule Tape. I love this stuff. It doesn't snap back in any way if it breaks and you can just double, triple up, if you need more pulling strength.

 

[JasperFrank]

It was all day today, picking up little dry sticks, and piling them on, thinking they would get the wood piles going. Then diesel and gas as a starter. This should have worked. It didn't take. I'm doing something wrong, but so is everyone else. Cause they can't get anything started either. Some one suggested I get some old tires. Not there yet. And can someone in the know, explain what a "swamp fire" pile is and how to make one.

 

[thclimer]

How to burn a wet slash pile:

 

[BlueKnife]

I'm doing something wrong, but so is everyone else. Cause they can't get anything started either.

Start a fire with dry wood, then put the wet wood on it once it's burning well and has a good bed of coals.

 

[2manyrocks]

Last brush pile I burned had coals so hot and deep that it was hard to put them out. Wasn't leaving them burning overnight unattended. I ended up buying a HF 2" semi trash pump and 2" water lines to make sure I can quickly extinguish the next pile with creek water.

 

[JasperFrank]

I've heard of folks using a shop vac, reversed to blow, to help start. I should try that. Right now, I just want a napalm flame thrower.

 

[Eagle1]

I've heard of folks using a shop vac, reversed to blow, to help start. I should try that. Right now, I just want a napalm flame thrower.

Experiment 64: Homemade Napalm with Household Materials