Some Ugly Stumps

SLawyer Dave · March 29, 2013, 01:20:49 AM

I got this email from a "farmer", who said he just bought some land and was going to plant an orchard. So he cut down 7 large oak trees that were on it and wanted me to cut and haul all the wood off. Seeing the stumps, I am amazed he did not kill himself falling the trees. He put 3 of the trees into the only fence within range.

beenthere · March 29, 2013, 01:57:27 AM

You are very right, that they be ugly stumps. Hopefully he lives through the next ones he needs to cut. And there is a lot of wood left in the stumps, which may be left a hair long for ease in grubbing out the root ball. If planting an orchard, grubbing the stumps may be in the plan too.

VT_Forestry · March 29, 2013, 07:06:05 AM

Lucky guy.

Magicman · March 29, 2013, 07:27:48 AM

Oh my, that is scary. Mighta been fun to watch, but scary.

clww · March 29, 2013, 09:46:27 AM

Yuck! Looks like a real rookie to me. Middle picture looks like it went the opposite way he intended? Makes me feel like a professional logger. :D

MEloggah · March 29, 2013, 02:14:15 PM

smiley_eek_dropjaw

thecfarm · March 29, 2013, 03:16:20 PM

I wished he was not so far away. I could show him the safe way to cut stumps. ;D I don't want to say he will end up getting hurt,but he has a good start to it. I just grew up around my Father cutting wood and he knew the safe way.
I had a job hauling brush for a nursing home about 16 years old I heard RUN . Never had to RUN away from a tree before. Than I saw the tree split about 10 feet up. Went home and told my Father and he told me a barber chair and why and told me I should find a differant job.

grassfed · March 29, 2013, 05:22:42 PM

I'll bet he can run pretty fast! :D

Autocar · March 29, 2013, 06:15:16 PM

Scary for sure !

Al_Smith · March 29, 2013, 06:21:27 PM

Quote from: thecfarm on March 29, 2013, 03:16:20 PM
Went home and told my Father and he told me a barber chair and why and told me I should find a differant job.

I've only had one ,early on and it's an eye opener . One of those can flip over and relieve you of your head .

lumberjack48 · March 29, 2013, 06:59:25 PM

Thats what you call, [ Stab-in an running ]

SLawyer Dave · March 30, 2013, 03:56:57 AM

I get the feeling that the "new" saw he bought to fall the trees won't get a lot more use. He is from a part of the world where the biggest trees they have are date palms, and I think he found out that falling and bucking wood is a lot harder work than he imagined. It didn't take much convincing to make him promise to call me if he needs more trees felled.

Ianab · March 30, 2013, 04:27:43 AM

QuoteI think he found out that falling and bucking wood is a lot harder work than he imagined

It is if you are making cuts like that :

Magicman · March 30, 2013, 07:46:25 AM

I had a heavy leaning Black Locust to barber chair on me

and it is still there. As far as I was concerned, it won.

I had a co-worker that was not so fortunate. :-\

lumberjack48 · March 30, 2013, 11:30:00 AM

Anyone who has fell trees, has experienced a barber chair. First thing that came to your mind is, how stupid that was, i sure hope nobody seen it.
Sounds stupid and it was, i've ran out of gas, you kind of pause, look up, look down, and see its starting to split, and its time for you to split. After that if i knew i was about out of gas, i checked before felling the next tree.

A barber chair is 99 percent human error, if you don't know how to fell a leaner, get somebody to show you, if you don't it maybe the last tree you cut.

SLawyer Dave · March 31, 2013, 01:14:04 AM

Ok, I'll bite, what is a barber chair? Never heard that term before. If your talking about leaners, then I suspect it is referring to a vertical split where the back side trunk tries to "jump out and getcha". But for the life of me, I can't see the allusion to a barber chair.

BaldBob · March 31, 2013, 01:29:07 AM

Yes, you described a barber chair perfectly. I think the term comes from a similarity to the motion of how the lower portion of the old barber chairs would come up as the back was lowered for giving the customer a shave.

beenthere · March 31, 2013, 01:46:32 AM

Here is a vid of a "barber chair" happening. There are variations of this splitting, but generally splitting up the middle and the top falling over.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YAf61zz5VU

m wood · March 31, 2013, 06:59:02 AM

oh my, that barber chair was a doooozie! his response seemed appropriate too. I've had 6 footers or so but that was a BC for a giant

clww · March 31, 2013, 11:48:25 AM

Just the way accidents happen in the woods: FAST.

John Woodworth · March 31, 2013, 02:01:32 PM

I's living proof for the time being that any fool can go to the hardware store and buy a cheap chainsaw and step into a world he does't understand or belong.