Could have been very bad

[maple flats]

The badly leaning large sugar maple tree is now safely on the ground and it landed exactly where I needed it to, didn't hit any sap tanks, nor the head tank, nor the wooden releaser structure nor the vacuum oump nor the elevated platform nor the empty SS barrels, and finally, not the sugarhouse.
I've never cut a sugar maple while the sap was still flowing in the past, but when I cut the felling notch sap ran out of the cut for at least 5 or 6 minutes in a pencil size stream, after that it slowed to a smaller stream. When the tree was on the ground the stump was putting out lots of sap, but because the chainsaw puts out lots of bar oil, there's no way it could be used.
I haven't yet bucked off the butt log, maybe next week, or the week after. The season is done, several trees have now budded, but this one had not yet.
Once I pack about 20 more gal of Dark, I'll pump a barrel of Amber into the finisher and pack that. Then I"ll cut the hemlock leaner down, limb it, and cut it into log lengths for the sawmill. I'll need to do that soon after the hemlock is down, because it will be blocking the double doors into the workshop and right noe the 2 man doors are both blocked with 30 gal barrels of bourbon barrel aged syrup awiting when they are ready, about late June or early July.

[DrTimPerkins]

Thanks for letting us know that the tree was successfully removed Dave.

[maple flats]

It is a downer to need to remove a healthy mature sugar maple that's right next to the releaser, but it was leaning so much I didn't feel safe working in the sugarhouse, so it had to go!

[johnallin]

Thanks for letting us know that the tree was successfully removed Dave.

You bet, and thanks for continuing to contribute to Trader...both you and Dave.

[Ghs57]

job well done.

[ebliese]

Now you'll be leaping from tree to tree!

[maple flats]

On last Saturday I had to remove another tree, leaning towards to front of my shop. It was a hemlock, about 15" at the stump, at least when I cut the felling notch and then plunge cut in to define the hinge my small gas saw (a Husky 543XP with a 16" bar barely reached thru on the plungs cut), any way, I had an even smaller window to drop it than I had on the sugarmaple. This time I had 14' between the front of the shop and a dissabled excavator. Because I thought the shop vwould sustain more damage if hit, I favored dropping it closer to the excavator. If the excavator was not opened to work on the engine, there would have been no issue, but I've removed the ROPS, the operator's seat and both parts of the engine cover, so the engine sets there fully exposed. I was luckey again, the tree did fully miss the shop and only a few very small branch tips hit the excavator, no damage at all. It just took a minute or 2 to remove a few small branch tips, nothing even 1/2" diameter, all smaller.
Then today, I started cleaning up from the hemlock because it was blocking easy access to the shop. Rather than being able to walk straight from the sugarhouse to the shop, I had lots of hemlock limbs to navigate thru, had to squeeze past the excavator, go another 10' or so, around the top of the hemlock, then back to the double doors into the shop. The hemlock was so close to the shop that I had to hold limbs out of the way to swing the doors open.
I so far have removed all limbs from the bottom 35' or so, and I cut 4 logs off the butt end, a 9', and 3 8.5 ft. I'm debating on whether to cut off another 8.5 ft or not, it is down to 8.5" diameter at the big end and about 7" at the small end if cut at 8.5' long. While I don't usually saw logs that small i haven't decided to do it or not. At any reate, other than that last decision, the rest will be hauled to make a brush pile for critters in the woods. It will break down in 3-5 yrs I'm thinking. Once cut up , logs piled off the ground, I'll likely buck up the sugarmaple so I can split it and make some great firewood. While I won't be firing my evaporator with wood anymore (going to oil), I still will be burning wood most times when the outside temps are at 25F or below, if warmer it gets too hot, and we use the furnace.
Once I buck the maple into blocks (14" long) I'll see if my brother can come and use his big skid steer with a spltter mounted that can break up the large blocks into a size I can lift onto my splitter. At 78 I can't lift what I used to and even then I don't think I could have lifted such large blocks in my younger days, I'd likely have needed to roll a block into the bucket on the tractor loader and place it on the splitter table, then work on it and hope none og the largest chunks fall on the ground. My brother's splitter is hung under the loader arm on his skid steer and it slipts in both directions, the wedge going left or right amd he's good enough that he makes it look easy operating the skid steer, picking up blocks, splitting them and picking up another to split. I don't know if the sugarmaple will be dry enough for next winter, but I have quite a number of dead ash trees if needed, in fact 2 recently blew down in recent winds, but they missed both structures.
I haven't checked yet, but i likely have at least a few other trees blown down over the rest of the property. My land is all just 6-14" of topsoil and duff, then it's all sand under that, not very good for holding trees upright given the winds we've had this past year. In yrs past I never had more than 1 tree hit or risk hitting the sugarhouse or the shop, this year I've had 6 blow down or lean so I had to cut them or risk a building.

[maple flats]

Today after I lifted the log and put a 4x4 under it to reduce the risk of hitting the dirt, I cut off 2 more blocks from the big maple, and cut 5 more cutting down from the top and working the chainsaw towards the ground to cut in about 12-14" along the opposite side, Then my battery needed recharge. While I usually use my bigger chainsaw with a 24" bar, today I opted for quieter, and used a DeWalt 60V chainsaw with an 18" bar. Next time I'll finish off the 5 I started, and start some more. This time I didn't have the batteries ( I have 2 @ 60V, one is 8 AH, the other is 9.6AH) charged beforehand, they will be charged before I start next time. Now that I've removed quite a lot of weight, the forks on the tractor will be able to pick the logs easier. I've been cutting from the upper part of the trunk, before the 1st crotch, once I get to the 1st crotch, I'll then use the skidding tongs to winch the butt log out from where it landed about 10' so it's in the roadway, from there I'll be able to raise it either using the forks, or using the tongs and 2 pt hitch skidding winch enough to slide a 4x4 under it to keep from sawing into the dirt. Once 4 or 5 more blocks come off the tractor will easily lift it to move the 4x4. As well as the 60V saw did, I'll likely use that for the rest, if I can. The butt might get too big in which case I'll need to go back to the 24" cut chainsaw, gas powered, I'm not sure if I cut using the 18" electric by starting at the top, and work the saw towards the far side and straight down, if I can get enough to finish down the front side to finish. Where I'm sawing now the log is down to 21-22" wide, by sawing like I did, the 18" bar easily reaches thru the rest. Where it's 29" wide, maybe, maybe not, I'll see. While that 60V saw only cuts at about half the speed, the quieter saw is golden.