Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
you by the spring action of the surrounding trees
(“widow makers”). Any of these can kill you.
If the tree leans much in the direction you plan to
cut it, chances are it'll split before you've cut far enough
through, so the butt will kick back as the split ruins
your first log. Before you make the major cut, make
three-to-four-inch-deep cuts on each side, and this
will lessen the splitting. So will a last burst of frenzied
cutting as the tree starts over, if you have the nerve.
Felling a nearly vertical tree where you want it,
instead of where the wind or gravity wants it, is mostly
a matter of aiming the notch — and the result of prac-
tice. Also, as you cut, leave more wood on the side you
want the tree to fall toward. I have seen my father
bring a tree a quarter-circle as it fell. My brother John
delights in placing falling trunks between closely
spaced neighboring trees.
A last word about felling trees: If your saw (cross-
cut or chain) gets caught as the tree falls, spend a min-
imum of time trying to remove it. There will usually
be a split second when it's free just before the trunk
jumps at you, but don't bank your life on it. Saws can
be replaced.
Beware of the attitude that “people do it all the
time, so it can't be that difficult.” That's just it — log-
gers do it all the time, and they get good at it. They
learn to read a slight shift in the wind that can send
the tree whipping backward before you realize it. They
know which way broken limbs may fly, and what to do
if a tree hangs.
I've felled trees for over 50 years, and I try never to
be complacent in the woods. But for some reason, I
recently failed to look up soon enough as a smallish
poplar I'd cut started its perfect fall. It snapped off a
dead limb from another tree 30 feet up, and a 10-foot
length as thick as a baseball bat crashed onto my
shoulder. I was on the ground with it and a running
chain saw all over me fast — too fast. Two inches over
and that limb would have hit my head. And my hard
hat was in the truck.
I mentioned hung-up trees. Do not ever cut the tree
that's holding up the other one. The combined weight
will snap off the trunk before you've cut far, and the
combined fall is fast and wild. Hook a long cable to the
butt of the hung tree and use a winch or skidding trac-
tor to free it.
If you cut your own nearby, skid them with a trac-
tor, four-wheel-drive vehicle, winch, or patient mule.
If you cut your own some distance away, have them
hauled. More about this later.
A very independent-minded friend bought 40
wooded acres, fully intending to cut his own logs and
build a log house. He bought a new chain saw and all
the related gadgetry. Into the woods he trudged, axe
in hand, wife in tow. He selected his first tree, aimed,
fired — down came the tree, bringing three dogwoods
down with it. His agitated wife said, “That's it. No
more.” Out of the woods they came. They drove to the
sawmill and bought a truckload of 6≈8 beams, then
notched them to create a log house. He left the forest
unmolested.
Alternatives
If you have no timber, your least laborious course is to
visit that sawmill operator and offer to buy logs and
lumber. He'll sell the lumber and usually the (sawed
or unsawed) logs to you for a board-foot price (cur-
rently 60 cents to $1.00 per), or refer you to one of his
log suppliers. These folks who sell to mills invariably
own aging trucks, live out on faint roads, and haul a
few logs to supplement whatever it is they live on. (I
know; I grew up pursuing this very trade.) You may be
eyed suspiciously at first, and you may have to wait a
spell for your logs, but give this a try before you give
up entirely.
Hauling Those Logs
Get your logs hauled to the site. Do
not
go out and
purchase a rusting truck, justifying it as an eventual
hay hauler, wood hauler, rock hauler, or cattle hauler.
The damn thing will fall to pieces at all the tense
moments, either mangling your body and/or delaying
your building for many weeks. The same predictions
apply to good old neighbors and friends who own
trucks. Avoid them.
You see, I first learned to drive in a log truck in my
tender years, and I have this battered observation:
Logging takes the life out of a truck faster than any
other business. My own tutorial machine was soon
brakeless, starterless, and cabless. Even a pampered
