Thursday, October 16, 2008

Beyond Wedging

We're revisiting the pin oak where we watched Jason cut out the heart of the tree. This big tree was on the edge of the timber, and it had some heavy limbs reaching out toward the light. It would have been easy to drop in the field next to the timber, but that would not have pleased the farmer. Jason aimed it into the woods, and pounded in a wedge as part of his setup. In this video we pick up the story as Jason cuts the tree loose. It sits down FIRMLY on the wedge. It's obvious there is more backweight than can be overcome with a wedge and a sledge.

Jason's partner, Roger M backed up to the tree and attempted to push it over. He made the John Deere grunt pretty well, and then switched to Plan C . He and Jason put a choker around the tree, and ran the skidder out at a 45 degree angle from the hinge. You can hear Roger winching back to the pin oak at this point in the video. He winches himself into a tree (Off Camera), shifts his winch into low, and pulls the pin oak over.

Watch the big limb break over backward and fall back onto the stump. This is a great demonstration of why we want to get away from the stump when we turn a tree loose. The end is repeated a couple times to reinforce the lesson.

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