Dave Smith wrote:

> On 2020-11-28 5:33 p.m., cshenk wrote:
> > Dave Smith wrote:
> >
> > > On 2020-11-28 4:34 p.m., cshenk wrote:
> > > > https://wwww.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MT3S2CK/
> > > >
> > > > I KNOW there are massive units that Sheldon will claim are all
> > > > you can use and he has 5 of them or something.
> > > >
> > > > Now for real people with smaller needs? I am over Pnematics at
> > > > this stage of our lives.
> > > >
> > >
> > > My old neighbour had one similar to that. He loaned it to me when
> > > I had that huge branch fall on my house. It was more like tree
> > > size. It could not handle the 18" pieces, but it sure was handy
> > > for anything you would get in a load of unsplit firewood. Word
> > > of caution... use a heavy duty extension cord or you will be
> > > burning out the motor or blowing fuses.
> >
> > Thanks! Our needs are more to the splitting down a bit more. By
> > 18" do you mean long or wide?
> >
>
> 18" diameter. That would be about the limit and, of course, depends
> on the type of wood. Some wood splits more easily than other wood.
> With the big and newer wood you might have to start near the side
> rather than going straight down the middle right off the bat.

Works for me. Most of ours is 'pre-split' but sometimes we need to
make one a bit smaller.

Don's been cutting down some with the Pneumatic manual but that's
getting harder now that he is 70. So, I did go ahead and get this
unit. Seems the right size and capacity for us and stores 'upright' so
won't take up a huge footprint in our shed(s).

We have 3 sheds BTW. First one was a 6x6 metal unit. It's been a bit
tree damaged (neighbors Pecan) but still works and is dry. The other
was an 8x10 wood unit, nice but once the roding lawn mower, smaller gas
one, and some other stuff was in it, no room for a work place for Don.

We added an 8x12 middle of this month and are happily NOT stuffing it
so far, but preserving a work bench setup (built in). First storage
rack 1/2 built (60"x19.5"x36", not huge but works). Don finished the
sealing today and on 5Dec, paint and such arrives. Had the other
things like painters tape, brushes, rollers already from a local store.

On 2020-11-29 3:49 p.m., cshenk wrote:
> Dave Smith wrote:

>>
>> 18" diameter. That would be about the limit and, of course, depends
>> on the type of wood. Some wood splits more easily than other wood.
>> With the big and newer wood you might have to start near the side
>> rather than going straight down the middle right off the bat.
>
> Works for me. Most of ours is 'pre-split' but sometimes we need to
> make one a bit smaller.
>
> Don's been cutting down some with the Pneumatic manual but that's
> getting harder now that he is 70. So, I did go ahead and get this
> unit. Seems the right size and capacity for us and stores 'upright' so
> won't take up a huge footprint in our shed(s).
>
> We have 3 sheds BTW. First one was a 6x6 metal unit. It's been a bit
> tree damaged (neighbors Pecan) but still works and is dry. The other
> was an 8x10 wood unit, nice but once the roding lawn mower, smaller gas
> one, and some other stuff was in it, no room for a work place for Don.
>
> We added an 8x12 middle of this month and are happily NOT stuffing it
> so far, but preserving a work bench setup (built in). First storage
> rack 1/2 built (60"x19.5"x36", not huge but works). Don finished the
> sealing today and on 5Dec, paint and such arrives. Had the other
> things like painters tape, brushes, rollers already from a local store.
>
If I had a tractor and bucket, a good gas powered splitter and was not
under weight and activity restrictions I would have ready access to
enough wood to keep me going for years I have two huge maples in my
front yard, but they are on town property One of them was so rotten in
the base that the town is taking it down. The tree service company has
spent about 4 days working on it. They didn't last long the first day
because their cherry picker could not reach high enough and for enough
to do the top branches. This tree is 60-70 feet high and the trunk is
more than 3 feet in diameter.

On Sun, 29 Nov 2020 17:13:33 -0500, Dave Smith wrote:

..
>>
> If I had a tractor and bucket, a good gas powered splitter and was not
> under weight and activity restrictions I would have ready access to
> enough wood to keep me going for years I have two huge maples in my
> front yard, but they are on town property One of them was so rotten in
> the base that the town is taking it down. The tree service company has
> spent about 4 days working on it. They didn't last long the first day
> because their cherry picker could not reach high enough and for enough
> to do the top branches. This tree is 60-70 feet high and the trunk is
> more than 3 feet in diameter.

Pity I don't live in the area. Despite the rot, I bet I could get quite a
few salad bowls from that trunk.

On 2020-11-29 5:26 p.m., Graham wrote:
> On Sun, 29 Nov 2020 17:13:33 -0500, Dave Smith wrote:
>
> .
>>>
>> If I had a tractor and bucket, a good gas powered splitter and was not
>> under weight and activity restrictions I would have ready access to
>> enough wood to keep me going for years I have two huge maples in my
>> front yard, but they are on town property One of them was so rotten in
>> the base that the town is taking it down. The tree service company has
>> spent about 4 days working on it. They didn't last long the first day
>> because their cherry picker could not reach high enough and for enough
>> to do the top branches. This tree is 60-70 feet high and the trunk is
>> more than 3 feet in diameter.
>
> Pity I don't live in the area. Despite the rot, I bet I could get quite a
> few salad bowls from that trunk.
>

The rot is at the bottom of the trunk. The branches are mostly sound
and wider than a lot of tree trunks. You could be turning bowl well into
eternity.

On 11/29/2020 5:13 PM, Dave Smith wrote:
> I have two huge maples in my
> front yard, but they are on town property One of them was so rotten in
> the base that the town is taking it down. The tree service company has
> spent about 4 days working on it. They didn't last long the first day
> because their cherry picker could not reach high enough and for enough
> to do the top branches. This tree is 60-70 feet high and the trunk is
> more than 3 feet in diameter.

Oh good grief. 4+ days for a tree service company to take down one tree?
What a bunch of hogans. Be thankful the city is paying for that.

On Mon, 30 Nov 2020 08:04:31 -0500, Gary > wrote:

>On 11/29/2020 5:13 PM, Dave Smith wrote:
>> I have two huge maples in my
>> front yard, but they are on town property One of them was so rotten in
>> the base that the town is taking it down. The tree service company has
>> spent about 4 days working on it. They didn't last long the first day
>> because their cherry picker could not reach high enough and for enough
>> to do the top branches. This tree is 60-70 feet high and the trunk is
>> more than 3 feet in diameter.
>
>Oh good grief. 4+ days for a tree service company to take down one tree?
>What a bunch of hogans. Be thankful the city is paying for that.

Um, the taxpayers are paying.

On 2020-11-30 8:38 a.m., Sheldon Martin wrote:
> On Mon, 30 Nov 2020 08:04:31 -0500, Gary > wrote:

>> Oh good grief. 4+ days for a tree service company to take down one tree?
>> What a bunch of hogans. Be thankful the city is paying for that.
>
> Um, the taxpayers are paying.



Yes. Of course they are. The town is responsible for trees on their
property. It wasn't like I had to argue with them. I called about the
problem. They came and looked at it, and within just a couple weeks they
came and started work on it. It would have been over $10,000 to bring it
down if it were on my property.

On Mon, 30 Nov 2020 10:03:11 -0500, Dave Smith wrote:

> It would have been over $10,000 [...] on my property.

Easy. As you said,

DO Cost_Item IN [ Height Diameter Infected Rotten Obstructed ]
Cost += Several(Cost_Item) * $K
ENDDO

I paid $2K for one healthy white ash. The city paid me several hundred.
In Quebec, the emerald ash-borer beetle, (Or as Trump calls it, "The
Chinese Beetle"), is spreading way faster than anticipated.

Basically, we only have a few years to cut down the ash trees. Soon, they
will all get the pest and die. So when they would need to be cut down,
they would be even taller and thicker.

Mine was 4 branches growing from one stump. Branch #1 was close to my
house, but #4 was leaning a lot towards my neighbour. All were +100 yr,
+60' height, +1' diameter. #2 or #3 would take down street-light wires.


The tree-cutting department at the city had a form which the arborist
filled in with the exact measurements from the registered contaminated
waste dispostion agency, who get paid to properly document burying of
what everyone can see is uninfected wood, and I got the cheque a few
weeks later.

On Mon, 30 Nov 2020 16:08:45 -0000 (UTC), Mike Duffy wrote:

> On Mon, 30 Nov 2020 10:03:11 -0500, Dave Smith wrote:
>
>> It would have been over $10,000 [...] on my property.
>
> Easy. As you said,
>
> DO Cost_Item IN [ Height Diameter Infected Rotten Obstructed ]
> Cost += Several(Cost_Item) * $K
> ENDDO
>
> I paid $2K for one healthy white ash. The city paid me several hundred.
> In Quebec, the emerald ash-borer beetle, (Or as Trump calls it, "The
> Chinese Beetle"), is spreading way faster than anticipated.
>
In 2017, my b-i-l and I went on a cycling holiday along the Canal du Midi
in southern France. We saw the devastation wreaked by a fungus on the Plane
trees that line the banks that is thought to have been introduced from
wooden pallets originating in the USA. They cut down the infected trees and
burn them nearby.
Photo 1 shows what it should look like:
https://postimg.cc/K1n43C46
This is a typical scene where a recent infestation has been dealt with:
https://postimg.cc/y3Z74SZM
This is an extreme and, unfortunately, not a rare case:
https://postimg.cc/Fd2QZsBD

On 2020-11-30 11:08 a.m., Mike Duffy wrote:
> On Mon, 30 Nov 2020 10:03:11 -0500, Dave Smith wrote:
>
>> It would have been over $10,000 [...] on my property.
>
> Easy. As you said,
>
> DO Cost_Item IN [ Height Diameter Infected Rotten Obstructed ]
> Cost += Several(Cost_Item) * $K
> ENDDO
>
> I paid $2K for one healthy white ash. The city paid me several hundred.
> In Quebec, the emerald ash-borer beetle, (Or as Trump calls it, "The
> Chinese Beetle"), is spreading way faster than anticipated.

A friend said she paid $11,000 to have a dozen dead ash trees taken down
on their property. These were all basically straight trees with trunks
no more than a foot in diameter. They would have cut them themselves
had they not been near the house or near power lines. Another friend
paid about $1500 to remove the rest of a poplar tree after a big piece
snapped off the top and landed on his fence. I never realized how many
ash trees we had here until the last two years when almost entire
forests died off from the green ash borer. It doesn't seem that long
ago that people were bitching and moaning about the government cutting
down all their local ash trees in order to create an ash borer exclusion
zone. Too little too late around here.

>
> Basically, we only have a few years to cut down the ash trees. Soon, they
> will all get the pest and die. So when they would need to be cut down,
> they would be even taller and thicker.

Dang. They will go the way of the Elm trees. There have been a few
places around here where clusters of elms made a valiant attempt to
return. They get to be 8-10 inches in diameter and 25-30 feet high and
then in a matter of weeks they just disappear. We had one elm three in
the yard. One day I noticed that all the leaves on one of the two main
trunks had suddenly turned brown. Two weeks later it happened to the
other side.


> The tree-cutting department at the city had a form which the arborist
> filled in with the exact measurements from the registered contaminated
> waste dispostion agency, who get paid to properly document burying of
> what everyone can see is uninfected wood, and I got the cheque a few
> weeks later.

No one is paying me anything for this maple. That's okay. I am just
grateful that the town is taking care of it. However, I am going to miss
that magnificent old tree.
>

On Mon, 30 Nov 2020 10:03:11 -0500, Dave Smith
> wrote:

>On 2020-11-30 8:38 a.m., Sheldon Martin wrote:
>> On Mon, 30 Nov 2020 08:04:31 -0500, Gary > wrote:
>
>>> Oh good grief. 4+ days for a tree service company to take down one tree?
>>> What a bunch of hogans. Be thankful the city is paying for that.
>>
>> Um, the taxpayers are paying.
>
>
>
>Yes. Of course they are. The town is responsible for trees on their
>property. It wasn't like I had to argue with them. I called about the
>problem. They came and looked at it, and within just a couple weeks they
>came and started work on it. It would have been over $10,000 to bring it
>down if it were on my property.

Not really, where I live there are plenty of people who would take it
down for a couple hundred dollars and the fire wood. In fact just
yesterday my neighbor who does haying, takes care of our tractors, and
stores his haying equipment in our barn took seven huge oak trees down
for an eldery lady (Lillian) who lives across the road from us. He
and his son had them down and taken to his place 1/4 mile down the
road in about five hours. Obviously the job was planned months ago as
he left the round bale moving forks on his giant tractor. If it
wasn't pouring rain today he'd be sawing, splitting, stacking, and
ready for selling... for all I know he already began, his big shed has
a saw mill in it, he sells lumber too... many large trees are worth a
lot more as lumber than firewood. He has steady firewood and lumber
customers... same for hay, he has hay already sold before he bales it.
A lot of hay is for the livestock farmers. I've been learning a lot
about the hay business, there are many kinds, some for bedding and
some for forage. The best forage hay goes to the race tracks and
mounted police.

On 2020-11-30 3:26 p.m., Sheldon Martin wrote:
> On Mon, 30 Nov 2020 10:03:11 -0500, Dave Smith
> > wrote:
>
>> On 2020-11-30 8:38 a.m., Sheldon Martin wrote:

>>> Um, the taxpayers are paying.
>>
>>
>>
>> Yes. Of course they are. The town is responsible for trees on their
>> property. It wasn't like I had to argue with them. I called about the
>> problem. They came and looked at it, and within just a couple weeks they
>> came and started work on it. It would have been over $10,000 to bring it
>> down if it were on my property.
>
> Not really, where I live there are plenty of people who would take it
> down for a couple hundred dollars and the fire wood. In fact just
> yesterday my neighbor who does haying, takes care of our tractors, and
> stores his haying equipment in our barn took seven huge oak trees down
> for an eldery lady (Lillian) who lives across the road from us.

I know people who would take down smaller trees for a small fee and the
the fire wood. This is not a small tree. It is a huge maple. It There
are several branches that are bigger than most trees. The first day
they were here they didn't get very far because their bucket would not
extend far enough for them to be able to cut in in smaller pieces so
they would not take out the power lines. They have been out 4 or five
days now and there is more than 30 feet of the base left, and it is
close to 4 feet across at the base.



>

Sheldon Martin wrote:
> On Mon, 30 Nov 2020 10:03:11 -0500, Dave Smith
> > wrote:
>
>> On 2020-11-30 8:38 a.m., Sheldon Martin wrote:
>>> On Mon, 30 Nov 2020 08:04:31 -0500, Gary > wrote:
>>
>>>> Oh good grief. 4+ days for a tree service company to take down one tree?
>>>> What a bunch of hogans. Be thankful the city is paying for that.
>>>
>>> Um, the taxpayers are paying.
>>
>>
>>
>> Yes. Of course they are. The town is responsible for trees on their
>> property. It wasn't like I had to argue with them. I called about the
>> problem. They came and looked at it, and within just a couple weeks they
>> came and started work on it. It would have been over $10,000 to bring it
>> down if it were on my property.
>
> Not really, where I live there are plenty of people who would take it
> down for a couple hundred dollars and the fire wood. In fact just
> yesterday my neighbor who does haying, takes care of our tractors, and
> stores his haying equipment in our barn took seven huge oak trees down
> for an eldery lady (Lillian) who lives across the road from us. He
> and his son had them down and taken to his place 1/4 mile down the
> road in about five hours. Obviously the job was planned months ago as
> he left the round bale moving forks on his giant tractor. If it
> wasn't pouring rain today he'd be sawing, splitting, stacking, and
> ready for selling... for all I know he already began, his big shed has
> a saw mill in it, he sells lumber too...

I bet he has other enormous equipment yoose interested in Popeye.

Gary wrote:

> On 11/29/2020 5:13 PM, Dave Smith wrote:
> > I have two huge maples in my
> > front yard, but they are on town property One of them was so
> > rotten in the base that the town is taking it down. The tree
> > service company has spent about 4 days working on it. They didn't
> > last long the first day because their cherry picker could not reach
> > high enough and for enough to do the top branches. This tree is
> > 60-70 feet high and the trunk is more than 3 feet in diameter.
>
> Oh good grief. 4+ days for a tree service company to take down one
> tree? What a bunch of hogans. Be thankful the city is paying for that.

Here they climb up where it can't reach and cut the top in small parts
with blocks and tackle for a controlled fall. Non-issue, happens all
the time.

150ft tree in neighbors yard, took a day, it was fun to watch!

On 2020-11-30 7:58 p.m., cshenk wrote:
> Gary wrote:

>> Oh good grief. 4+ days for a tree service company to take down one
>> tree? What a bunch of hogans. Be thankful the city is paying for that.
>
> Here they climb up where it can't reach and cut the top in small parts
> with blocks and tackle for a controlled fall. Non-issue, happens all
> the time.
>
> 150ft tree in neighbors yard, took a day, it was fun to watch!
>

The guys who came to clean up when a huge branch broke off the other
(bigger) tree were independents and one of them said that he loves
climbing up into the high branches. This was a crew from a major tree
service company and they may have company policies and insurance issues
that prevent. Two guys did more work in one day that this crew has done
in all the time they have been coming here.


If it were an independent tree guy the job probably would have been done
in short order. The first day they were here for about hour hours
during which time they worked for maybe an hour and a half. Then they
left, saying they needed the truck with the long boom. The last time
they were here them Friday <?>, their truck was here are 8 am. They
started sometime after 9. They cut off one big piece of a main branch of
the trunk, took a break and then cut a second length of it and they were
gone by 1:30. I thought they were going for lunch, but they never came
back.