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This https://www.facebook.com/reel/3235666369977677 showing the removal of an extremely dangerous tree reminds me of the town crew removing a tree on the boulevard out front of our place a few years ago.
In fairness my/their tree was a fair bit bigger, but from what I saw there was more than enough "overkill" to go around.... though thankfully everybody was kept "safe." ![]()
That doesn't look like an "extremely dangerous tree" to me. In fact, it looks like a healthy tree.
I had one taken down in my yard many years ago. It was a 30 plus year old flowering cottonwood tree. They had to bring in a cherry pickere to reach high enough to start cutting it down. It was fascinating to watch those men climb like monkeys up the tree and cut off branches. The tree was between our carport and the neighbor's house. One glitch and that tree could have damaged the neighbor's house or our carport.
I had two trees taken out last year. Roots were threatening to break the house foundation. A job for pros, with those trees--75-foot liquidambars about 15 feet from the house. Not cheap, but done properly and I had no cleanup to take care of.
As to the tree in the Facebook video--that was barely a tree at all--if it's even past being a sapling. A job I would have done myself when I ws 30-40 years younger. I would have felled it and cut it up on the ground.
Edited by - Bill Rogers on 08/21/2026 01:32:25
quote:
Originally posted by OwenThis https://www.facebook.com/reel/3235666369977677 showing the removal of an extremely dangerous tree reminds me of the town crew removing a tree on the boulevard out front of our place a few years ago.
In fairness my/their tree was a fair bit bigger, but from what I saw there was more than enough "overkill" to go around.... though thankfully everybody was kept "safe."
Now that's funny .........good one Owen. Thank goodness no one was hurt!
Geez Terry, I think I might be your man .... too bad we aren't closer. ![]()
Here's one I "trimmed" this spring* [was off line with the others, too close to the shop, dropping too many berries onto neighbour's yard, etc.]. Oddly**enough, we had an arborist assess a couple in the front yard, and to kill two birds with one stone, my lovely and talented assistant asked about some other apple and ornamental crab in the back yard that I had pruned last fall .... he said I'd done a ... (insert drum roll here) ... very competent job (insert fist pump here).
* will dig around it and remove it if/when the urge gets too much to bear.
** odd in that I have no training [not even internet how-to's] and just lopped "some" off the top and thinned out some of the inner branches. [We'd already decided that it'd be "no big loss" as other smaller varieties would better suit the space.]
I had a mulberry tree in my back yard that was really overgrown with leaves/branches over and into the electric line to the house. I got bids that went from $4,000 to 1,500.
One guy wanted to tear down my fence so he could get his cherry picker in the back yard. He said I'd have to take care of putting the fence back up.
The guy I finally decided on wanted $1,500 for 3 trees, including that big mulberry. He did a pretty good job, got all the branches away from the electric line without any problems. He did leave 2 huge dead limbs as his equipment wasn't heavy enough to cut through them.
I've cut a couple hundred cord of spruce,fir,maple and birch on my land since the 80s sometimes using wedges or my tractor to pull them over,but one time one of my birches (50-60 footer) was leaning toward my neighbor's garage and I called an old friend who actually went to school for logging out west.He owned a saw mill for years.
I asked him to come over and look at the problem.The tree was leaning toward their garage at around 10 degrees and I felt uncomfortable even with chaining it over with my tractor.
"Charlie" looked it over and said he would simply fell it with the saw,alone.
He cut it so that as it started falling toward the garage it "steered" itself over 90 degrees to the right,brushing the garage with just a few leaves as it fell.It was beautiful to watch.
I asked him what I owed him and he said "How about that Harley-Davidson front fender under your house?
Sure I said.I had traded some firewood for the fender a couple years prior and Charlie had a Harley.
^^ reminds me of an incident from my distant past that helped me learn my limitations.
'Twas at a government research camp in northern MB ... communication was a phone line running in from the lines along the railway about 1/4 mile away, but somehow a radio (?) was involved, as you had to say "over" to let the person on the other end know it was his turn. Anyhow, another student and I decided we needed to remove a spruce tree to make adequate room for us to toss a football around. However said tree was like yours Steve ... leaning a bit ......... toward the phone line.
Not to fear; I figured I could strategically cut the felling notch to "pull it around." Soon enough found out that I couldn't!!* Anyhow, we tied the wires back together, taped 'er up, buttoned our lips, and Bob was our Uncle .... for several (?) years [i.e. both of us were on to other things].
Later I heard via the grapevine that at some point the camp lost phone service ... apparently it took about three weeks to find the break.
* Later when I was trying to farm I'd have to cut some trees ... had pretty good success felling them where I wanted, but typically they'd be "low risk" situations. [One spruce tree notwithstanding.
]
That video reminded me of my pole climbing course when I started with the telephone co. The following week I returned to work in West Vancouver. I knew I could climb the poles but having to get stuff done up top was still a bit of a worry. Our first call was an all day job on Eagle Island which is really only a 10 minute ride in a row boat. There are about 40 houses there today. There are also no motor vehicles. After reaching the new house I noticed that the phone cable was only about 10 above the pathway on very short poles. Boy was I relieved. A week later I was on busy Marine Drive with busses going by about 4 feet below my buttox. I did survive another 10 years in that particular job.
We had a few trees cut down in the back yard this spring. Too close to the house, and one had been dead and bare a few years. No problem, and, with what we'd heard what some companies charged, not too expensive. They took the carcasses away. With our own tiny patch of "woods", It would have been okay with just leaving them, but this was neater. The Mrs. is concerned about a large one which will be reachable (for removal) when the rotten old shed comes down tomorrow.
It seems that companies that refer to themselves as "tree care" mostly do tree removal, just like "landscaping" companies mainly to lawn mowing.
Several years ago a tree fell in our woods - actually from next door - which got caught in another tree. Had it not been tangled up in that tree, it would have landed where our garage and dining room meet. The neighbour took full responsibility and paid for the removal. Good neighbour.
Edited by - Paul R on 08/25/2026 19:39:29
quote:
Originally posted by steve davisGood neighbors are great.
A 100 foot "line" tree originating on my neighbor's side of the stone wall blew over and took out half of one of my apple trees and my neighbor had a pro come in with his big tractor and clean up everything at his cost.
That was indeed a good neighbor, as under the law in most states he would have not been legally obligated to do so. I guess Maine's law is the same as most states.
Right you are John ...... but, it sounds screwy enough that I had to confirm it via Google AI.
[Our next-door neighbour has several b-i-g, 60 y.o. spruce trees that will easily reach our garage/house ..... if a strong enough SE wind comes to be.
] Is old-age as it pertains to a tree an act of God?
[If being forewarned is being forearmed, maybe we should get our butts in gear re. selling and moving into whatever housing the next phase in our lives will bring.]
Edited by - Owen on 08/31/2026 09:51:08
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