Here's a person who is totally clueless!

[Nancy]

OK, now I have to ask you what you think about this. We are all survivors here and relatives of survivors. And we all value life and health so much.

I was cooking dinner, and heard the loudest concussion sound. I looked out the window into the yard where the noise came from. There on the ground had just fallen a tree that is about 30 inches in diameter and about 75 feet tall, complete with all its branches, just missing the house of our neighbor. These are new neighbors, and a very young couple with a tiny toddler. The man was out there with a small sized chainsaw, no hardhat, no eye protection, absolutely no rigging on the tree he just felled, and he was proud as punch with himself.

When you hire a tree surgeon, they top off the trees first, rigging every branch, then take it down in sections rigging it all the way down. They have all kinds of safety gear on including hardhats and sound earmuffs and eye protection. And they have spotters.

I just cannot for the life of me understand the stupidity of this young man. He could have killed himself or others, could have trashed his house or if the tree fell in a strange way, the house of his close neighbors.

I understand from another neighbor that he is planning to remove other even taller trees, in a similar fashion.

And he is also stacking all the wood he saws up right next to his house. I see termite and carpenter ants having a feast and marching right into his house structure.

What an absolute jerk!

 

[Ross]

For a minute there, I thought you were posting about me.(Clueless) Nancy the guy is bound to get someone hurt or something destoyed. Stay far far away from him and his property. I've seen the type and they are extremely hard headed. They think nothing can or will go wrong. That's where the danger is!

 

[Les]

"When Cousins Marry"...Tonight On Fox!
_________________
Les AVR '93 / '95

 

[LUVMyBirman]

OMG! Wonder if your city/village has some sort of regulations? We have 100 year old variety of maples, oak, catalpa, etc. 7-8 very large trees on our property. It's cost me a little over $100 to have them trimmed up safely this spring.

How does a female putting in her own sprinkler system without a permit rank? It's not myself. Neighbor. Just praying my house and yard don't flood. Some people are clueless. They don't comprehend how their actions may impact others around them.

 

[ccrawford]

You caught me

You caught me

Shucks Nancy, I was gonna surprise ya after I got all those trees cut down, but you caught me. Howdy neighbor ! Chris

 

[Marty]

On warfarin?

On warfarin?

Nancy, I hope he's not taking warfarin.You know, we are not supposed to use a chainsaw!

 

[Granbonny]

Yikes

Yikes

MANY years ago..hubby decided to cut down a tree on the farm..Notched it the wrong way and almost came down on him..Never again..Now, we pay $75.00 a tree to our piney woods men to come in and cut one down if we need it..should see those guys..Shimmy up the tree..top. and down they come..Saw up..clean up..Shreader and all..Nothing left.Well woth it. bonnie

 

[hensylee]

$75.00 a tree, Bonnie? Well, you're even deeper in the woods than I am. They charge from 500 up to 800 per tree here. (and then they take the wood and either sell it for firewood or burn it themselves; except pines, of course-tar you know).

 

[Nancy]

Yup-

It's from $500.00 to $800.00 and on up, here too. Very huge trees pines, maples and oaks. We have one that is 250 feet tall.

Just imagine this fella cutting that off at the base. Makes he shudder. I hope his life insurance is all paid up.

I bet he's using that pine wood in the fireplace too. Yikes! Instant tar, you're right Hensylee. It was a pine that fell. He's also using a little electric Sawzall to cut up the huge logs. Can't even roll then on the lawn they're so big.

 

[LUVMyBirman]

Boy, should feel fortunate we just required a trim this year Have one potential that may need to come out. Huge catalpa. We think the builder damaged the root system when pouring the foundation. Our quote was $900

Yep, and as Phil stated below you may need a permit to chop down large trees of such. For the saftey of others....I would call and inquire Nancy.

 

[Phil]

it against the law here...

it against the law here...

You can go to jail if you cut a tree that is over 10 ft tall where I live without a permit, on your property or not...

 

[John Cochran]

Darwin Awards

Darwin Awards

Nancy,
Your neighbor is definitely a few french fries short of a Happy Meal. My father owned a landscape company, and was a certified tree surgeon. I worked for him during summer breaks in high school and college, and remember all the special precautions in removing big trees. The trees were always "topped" first, with the branches guided to the ground by carefully placed guide ropes. Even the main trunk was removed in two sections. Hard hats, eye protection, ear protection, cut-resistant gloves, coats and boots were all required.

Your neighbor is a potential candidate for a "Darwin Award."
The Darwin Awards commemorate the remains of individuals who contribute to the improvement of our gene pool by removing themselves from it in really stupid ways. This site is interesting and SCARY!

http://darwinawards.com

--John

 

[ALCapshaw2]

Interesting and timely post Nancy. Do you REALLY have a 250 ft tree? I thought those only existed on the West Coast.

A logger just took down 18 mature pines from my woods last week, mostly 25 to 40 year old trees 80 to 90 ft tall. I was VERY impressed with his skill but noted he did not use any kinds of protection on his ears, eyes, or head. I don't think a hard hat would have helped if one of those suckers came down on him though. He works alone and told me he has never been injured in the 7 years he has been logging. Prior to that, he worked as a Mechanical Engineer.

What did impress me was that he pre-stressed each tree with the fork lift on the front of his tractor, lifting the front wheels of his 4 wheel John Deer Tractor off the ground, cut a notch, then sawed 'most' of the way through. At that point, he used the hydrolic control to push the tree a few inches at the top to be sure of the direction it was going to fall before he administered the final cut. Each tree fell precisely where he intended.

He got the 18 ft logs from the trunk. No charge, but I have to clean up the mess. GREAT exercise program, right in my own back yard. I'll be burning pine branches for a month!

Bonnie, that shreader and cleanup crew sounds appealing, but I'm not ready to shell out $1350...check with me in a few weeks Does anyone pick up pine branches for mulch?... "Let's Make A Deal !"

'AL'

 

[Granbonny]

Loggers

Loggers

Remember I live in the Mountains of Ga..these guys grew up logging. ..The one who cuts the tree is little fellow.. They also bring in the high-rise? equippment that they go up in..I rode up one day..Got dizzy..but what a view..we could have if we were allowed to cut hardwoods down. Only pine trees. (Live in a gated community. also Wildlife Preserve) One ridge in this section of Ga. nearby was not protected. Some idiot went up there and cut down all the trees for a view. Now, thousands of people who come into the Valley look up at the beautiful scenery and see the hole in the top of Mt. He was written up in the local paper, ect.. Wrote back to say he had replanted trees.. What, 50 years to grow back.Al..John purchased a shreader from Lowe's for branches. ect. Makes his own mulch.. Gina..Hope your neighbor is not digging up ground. She could hit an underground wire. That is illegal.. Nancy..do yall have overhead wires..Same thing should apply..Bonnie

 

[hensylee]

Gina - catalpa trees - in this part of the world, there are families of worms that live in them. People around here use them for fishin worms. Many folks want one in their property; not me; hate worms. One person came to my place, picked a few worms to take to his own tree to start a family of them. These worms eat all the greenery from the tree til it's bare, but it doesn't kill the tree! And catalpa trees multiply like crazy. Bet Bonnie has some - catalpa trees, that is.

 

[Nancy]

We have overhead wires, underground gas lines, underground water lines, underground telephone cables, and we have septic systems. If he dropped the tree on any of those services, it would be terrible. Of course, I wouldn't mind if he dropped it on his own septic tank, piping, or leach field. That's instant trouble.

Al, we do have a couple of pines that are that tall. A couple of years ago we had some kind of TV receiver grid thingy attached to the top of one of them. At the time this was the new and improved TV access company. The guy who put it up there had to climb the tree and was amazed at how tall the tree was. It was the tallest tree around so our reception was pretty good. It had a lightening cable attached. Then when we got rid of that service for a cable service, the guy had to climb the tree again to remove it.

Re: shredders, we have a Troy-Bilt chipper/vac and it's just wonderful! I run it and have lots of fun "chipping". It's quite a dirty job though, but it keeps our property in good shape. We have too many twigs, branches, pine needles, leaves and acorns to rake up. Spring cleanup people wanted about $700.00 to do it a couple of years ago.

 

[pegne]

My hubby

My hubby

is a do-it-yourselfer. Everything from plumbing to building to electricioning. Sometimes he drives me crazy but for the most part I am lucky to have him. I always have a project for him to do. Last week he cut down our 12 year old purple plum. It had run its' course. We'll use the wood in the outdoor fireplace. He cuts all our firewood but he is smart enough to wear eye protection and not store it by the house. I am pretty picky about the wood we burn in the house because I don't like real strong wood smell.

 

[Rain]

With all due respect.....

With all due respect.....

I don?t see that its any of our business what the guy is doing... unless of course its illegal.

Hey, what happened to the post about loggers..... guess he didn't wanna start an arguement. I don't either.... but Nancy asked what we all thought... and I personally do not want to constantly be monitored by the government or anyone else.

Better be careful... we?re getting close to talking politics here. lol

 

[Bunny_Rabbit]

Les, you almost made me pee myself laughing.

Nancy, yeah I think you've hit the nail on the head here. He IS clueless.

 

[Nancy]

Basically, I don't care if he even wants to set fire to his shorts while wearing them, as long as he doesn't alight my house or otherwise endanger others while doing it.

But, it wouldn't stop me from pointing out that it's a very stupid thing to do, setting fire to your shorts. That would be another clueless thing to do. LOL

I also suspect there must be an ordinance in the Code book that would require a permit, just so all of the service sources could mark their lines, and to make sure there was a safe plan to taking down this huge tree.

A severed gas line could endanger a lot of people. There was a house not too far from here that was blown off the map by a gas explosion. I can't remember is anyone was killed, but I do think there were at least terrible injuries.