This morning as I felt the injured shoulder from holding up a tree last Friday. There is a lesson to be learned here for anyone trying to do things on the cheap.
My friend came over and agreed to cut some trees as we have most mornings since the odd dry spell has hit the Southern Oregon Coast. He says to me, "Well, I don't like the lean of this tree... ..I don't want to cut it."
"No problem! My land, my responsibility, I'll do it," I said.
With that the chainsaw starts and my friend begins the cuts. I am over him, in an already unsafe position pushing the large conifer towards the valley below. Suddenly its getting heavy, and the chainsaw binds.
He starts to panic realizing the last cut was a bad cut. The tree not only starts leaning towards the orchard area of the property but also towards the Coos County Electrical lines. I am holding it up now with all my might as I exclaim to him to get the head of the splitting maul to use as a wedge, anything!
He disappears, I am left holding up a large tree. I start praying & telling the tree thank you for not hitting the lines. I hear things slamming near the house and moments later he is back, I am decidedly weaker from the experience. I do not know how much pressure is against me, but I know I am losing this battle.
He tries to sledge the splitting maul head in with the back of a Collins axe. It doesn't work and the vibration is killing me. He then slams the head of the Collins axe into the tree and begins to use it as a wedge using the head of the splitting maul as a hammer. The tree slowly lightens but each vibration is a single going up the tree like the first signals from Tesla's first radio broadcasts to the entire property exclaiming, "Hey these humans mucked it up! HA HA!"
The tree is now more stable, and we exchange ideas as fast as a river in spring. He runs back towards the house leaving me with the tree again and drives the mile to my neighbors. He grabs a come-a-long and our neighbor to rush back & help. I am now exhausted, losing my strength, and grip but not my resolve. I won't let this tree harm the other trees let alone the power lines!
Between 5 & 10 more minutes pass by & my friend returns with the Come-a-long and some chains. We quickly hook everything up to a Port Orford Cedar below and get to pulling the tree in the other direction. Few moments later it comes down with a thunderous safe crash downhill away from the power lines & away from the apple trees.
Lesson learned by all.
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