We Say Goodbye to Our Big White Oak Tree

July 4, 2009

After watching our big oak tree deteriorate around the roots for a couple of years, we had to make the decision to bring it down. Their assessment was that it had been struck by lightning. After it was down, I counted 72 tree rings with a black separation about seven years back. In places it extended all the way around the tree and had caused a separation of the outer layers. Ace Tree Surgeons brought in this high bucket truck which could reach almost to the top of it.

The bucket work was interesting. He put a long rope over a top limb and tied it off to the limb he was cutting. Two guys on the ground held the rope so that the limb swung down vertically and could be lowered to the ground. The tree man was a wiry guy who told me he had been doing tree work for 35 years. He certainly looked expert in the handling of the chainsaw and the limbs.

He trimmed off all the bottom limbs first so he could keep the rope support over the high limb. They would lower the limbs and feed them into the chipper.

I was a bit concerned about the big limb that extended over the house, but he roped down the section over the house and then quickly dropped the remainder of the limb in sections.

After dropping the top limbs, he started down the tree in short lengths.

And the logs kept tumbling down.

The final step was the grinding of the stump, which was pretty amazing in itself. This is a remotely controlled grinder which stepped forward hydraulically and tilded and swiveled under the control of the operator with a hand-held controller.