feature night by johnlobb

johnlobb would like to see or hear about trees coming down on your property,,,or on your tractor,polebarn,car or whatever

No picture from me tonight, just a story. I don't feel like digging through album,if that picture is even still around.

Once we had a big willow on the end of the drive, it had a large limb over the drive that kept dropping... One year we decided to take the whole tree down(it was getting close to power lines, blocking field drive and of course the yard drive). We had a small shed across the drive we used as a produce stand. Before we dropped the tree, we moved the shed back some, so we hoped it would be out of the way... cut the limb hanging over the drive, dropped it square on top of our little shed.Thankfully it was empty at time or it would of been a bigger mess.

How about general opps(stuck, crash...) one night just thought that idea.

Neighbor was cutting a apple tree about 10 feet from his house. It was leaning out and away, so no issue>>> he heard cracking and set down the saw. As he stepped across to get a better look, it split right up the trunk. it picked him up and set him (not too gracefully) on the roof, about 12 feet in the air. Jim

Was cutting a line of fir trees along our lawn- was fairly limited in the directions I could have them fall, but I'm OK at felling them where I want them to go. Was a little off on one, and it took out half of a lilac bush we had planted to commemorate the burial place of our best dog. Figured it would survive, so I was happy. The next tree finished it off. Doh!

Worked with a guy one time who had been hired to fell a BIG fir tree next to a bay in Puget Sound. The only place we could put it was into the bay. He consulted the tide tables and told me to show up at XX:XX O'clock. He dropped the tree into the bay, just as the tide was going out, and we cut and split rounds and carried them out until the tide turned, at which time he put a line around what was left, instructed the property owner to pull it in at high tide that night, and we went home. Next day we went out and again cut it up as tide went out, and got it done.

I cut down this pin oak in December because it was getting too big to be close to the house, branches were over the roof. All went as planned so no exciting story to tell. BTW, my wife saw a picture of what someone did with a large stump. They cut the top V shape and put a "roof" on it to make a gnome house with "windows" and a "door". I'll try doing that with the stump.

A few of the blowdowns I've had from the Box Elder trees around me. I am in the process of removing all the females as I've heard the females attract the Box Elder bugs.

No pic. Not on my property, but about ten years ago when we had a bad ice storm I was on a fire dept. crew going around all night responding to calls for help. We had to cut our way through fallen trees every where that we had to go. We would be in the road cutting up a tree, when we would hear the CRAAAACK CRAAAASH of another tree coming down. We would all stop and look around, trying to figure out in the pitch dark where the tree was and which way it was falling, but we never could. Happened again and again all night.

A BIG oak went down in a hay field this summer, split right down the middle, half fell to the north and half fell to the south. About 4 foot across at the base. Got it cut up into legths but not the base yet. A lot of wood in it.

No pics, unless you know my address and care to Google it and get a satellite view. Then you will see what the ash borer is capable of. Looks like that meteor in Tunguska hit the place.

I also have a Cub Loboy that was darn near cleaved in half by an oak branch. I restored it. Would make a great photo op if I actually had any.

Then there is the tree back in November of 2014. A leaner ash tree. Severed the trunk from the root and all was well. Then it suddenly fell loose of the tree is was leaning on and came down between the trunks of a tree with two trunks. These were offset just enough to cause my end to rise up like a teeter totter whilst coming straight at my head. Hit me on the side of the head and half tore off my ear. I was two hours with a plastic surgeon getting that repaired. I saw it coming and moved enough to save my skull...only just.

I have more...my eldest daughter has forbidden my to touch the chainsaw anymore. So I wait until she goes to work.

A tree down and a lesson learned the hard way.

Son was about 6 years old and everyday he'd ride his bike up by the house and flop it down in front of our steps. I told him he needed to put it away in the toy shed.

He stopped dumping it by the house... we THOUGHT he was putting it in the toy shed.

On late-summer night, straight-line winds blew over a huge Sunburst locust tree in our yard. The snap/crack was so loud that we thought lightening must have struck it but the tree had internal issues (shown by fungi growing on its north side but we were young and didn't know that indicated poor tree health).

One large branch punched a hole in our garage roof.

The trunk fell due east... it knocked our 500 gallon LP tank off its base (which did not leak, thankfully), it pushed a slight permanent tilt into the swing set and it TOTALLY smashed our little son's bike.

Turns out that instead of putting it away - he had been laying his bike out behind the LP tank. Had he put it away in the toy shed, it would have been unharmed.

Moral of the story: "Listen to your mama."

We did make him wait until the following summer to get a new bike.

No picture, just a story...

When we first moved into our house about 10 years ago, we discovered the next door neighbor had a huge cotton wood in the back yard. We were the recipient of mounds of cotton from it, drifted up in the back yard, stuck in the screens, clogging the AC condenser.

My wife hated that tree! But nothing we could do.

Came home one evening, there was the tree, laying across the new privacy fence I had just finished. It just brushed the house, bent a rain gutter, took some limbs out of a couple of my trees. It landed on the owners daughter's car, dented the front fender but not serious. It could have been much worse, it fell in about as perfect a place it could without causing major damage.

I noticed my wife seemed quiet about the whole deal, thought she would be happy it was gone, I sure was!

She later shared with me, she had prayed for God to take the nasty thing away! She felt bad that it had landed on my new fence, damaged the car...

I just reassured her that it was OK, glad it was gone, keep on praying! LOL

We had been wanting a skidsteer loader for using on the farm for years. We were finally able to buy a 4 year old machine that was in excellent shape. Two days after buying it, I decided to take it out to the woods to use while cutting firewood. I don't claim to be an expert, but I have cut down a lot of trees, even back then. I had a nice, straight ash tree, about 12" on the stump to cut down. I knew exactly where it was going to drop, never even considered the place where the skidsteer was sitting could ever be the same place this tree would or could land. As I was cutting the tree, it twisted a big on the stump, and rotated about 90 degrees before dropping..............right on the roll cage of the skid steer. Luckily it hit on the side, near the back, so there was a lot of support in the roof. It didn't leave a mark! Talk about relief!

Another time, not quite as good of an outcome as the skidsteer loader. I had a fairly new Husqvarna chainsaw, and was cutting poplar trees. I had a tree about 14" diameter, and when the tree started to tip, I somehow managed to pinch my saw. I tried to hang on to it as long as I could, but I could tell the tree was going to kick back when it hit the ground, so I had to let go. Sure enough, it hit the ground, kicked back, and rolled off the stump right on to my new chainsaw. It was smashed up pretty bad, and I didn't have money to buy another new saw. I was telling a friend about it that evening, and he had the exact same saw that an employee had put nonmixed gas into. It scored the piston and sleeve, so he was going to buy another new saw, as he didn't have time to wait for his to be rebuilt. If I wanted his, I could have it. Well, that saw had been used pretty hard already, so I ended up taking my smashed saw, and his with the blown motor, and taking them both completely apart on my basement floor. Then I started assembling one good saw by using the best parts of the two machines. When I was done, the saw ran and worked great. Still use it regularly, and that was about ten years ago.

SWHMBO's van. It was just a little over a year old when this happened.

She was NOT a happy camper.

Super storm Sandy took down a lot of trees on our property, about 60-70, several just missed the house so I cut down some leaning over the house and shed. Had to pull most of them hard with the excavator. Last picture is some salvaged from the storm.

My pickup and stock trailer are under there somewhere. The only damage,somehow,was the lens from a clearance light in the trailer. I picked it up off the ground and popped it back on.

Here are a few.