The joy of home ownership
Yes, that's the dead cherry tree (100 years old, half rotten, other half most certainly not rotten) that used to stand in our back yard. This morning, after a front came through, it decided that standing was too tiring, and lying down would be a better plan. So down it came, shedding its top when it hit the T-1 bundle that the phone company has running down the middle of our block, then carefully threading the needle between the holistic medicine/acupuncturist's office (the pink building) and the gardener's shed that the Sellwood "World Trade Center" placed on the only non-paved part of their lot.
My grand plan of sawing the tree into small easy to move parts came to an abrupt end when the tree shifted and grabbed the sawblade between a couple of thousand-pound chunks of non-rotten cherrywood, so it remains out there, waiting for me to get a 1 or 2 ton jack so I can apply some gentle persuasion to pinching parts of the tree.
(And, no, I wasn't using a chainsaw. I'm old fashioned that way, though the absolute and complete lack of reasonably-sized forestry saws of either the push or pull variety is making me think that this might not be a good plan. One would think that in Oregon, a state that, despite the best efforts of the voters, still retains a few large trees, you might be able to find a saw that can cut through a 24" treetrunk, but no, the closest I've been able to find without trolling for antiques is a piddly 36 inch woodcutters hacksaw, which is great for cutting down 6-12" saplings, but not so good for a tree that's any larger than that.)
Next week: forestry with napalm and dynamite!
Comments
One word: detcord! Invite the whole block to see!
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Three words – rental electric chainsaw.
The Makita ones are quite good, there’s no two-stroke-engine Will It Start? dance, the noise is minimal, and generally the rentals come with a sharp chain that will last through a whole tree. (For most values of tree; rock elm is not what you’ve got, though, so you should be fine.)
Absolutely nobody makes big crosscut or bucking saws anymore, so far as I’m aware; just no market. You can make a frame saw out of sections of bandmill blade, but that’s more of a project than an opportunity to chunkify the cherry tree.