Legal Problems for Man Who Had His Neighbor's Trees Cut Down

[Roadking Larry]

I had this one taken down in March. Big White Oak.


I hated to lose the shade bit it was rotten in the center at the base and had a slight lean towards the house.



Might have lasted another 100 years or the EF-1 that hit 3/4 of a mile away might have been a little closer and dropped it on my house.
I got 8+ rick of firewood and 165 board feet of lumber out of it though.

 

[Perplexed]

I had this one taken down in March. Big White Oak.


I hated to lose the shade bit it was rotten in the center at the base and had a slight lean towards the house.



Might have lasted another 100 years or the EF-1 that hit 3/4 of a mile away might have been a little closer and dropped it on my house.
I got 8+ rick of firewood and 165 board feet of lumber out of it though.

Did you mill the lumber yourself? Or who did you get to do it?

 

[Roadking Larry]

I have a chainsaw mill attachment. The boards I ended up with were 12 1"x17"x8.5' and 1 3"x17"x8.5'.

 

[THAT Gurl]

I had this one taken down in March. Big White Oak.


I hated to lose the shade bit it was rotten in the center at the base and had a slight lean towards the house.



Might have lasted another 100 years or the EF-1 that hit 3/4 of a mile away might have been a little closer and dropped it on my house.
I got 8+ rick of firewood and 165 board feet of lumber out of it though.

That was the right choice. Man ... Looking at those pics give me the willies ...

 

[SoonerP226]

I had this one taken down in March. Big White Oak.


I hated to lose the shade bit it was rotten in the center at the base and had a slight lean towards the house.



Might have lasted another 100 years or the EF-1 that hit 3/4 of a mile away might have been a little closer and dropped it on my house.
I got 8+ rick of firewood and 165 board feet of lumber out of it though.

That reminds me of the blackjack oaks that used to be on my place (well, my folks’ place at the time). My dad went on a blackjack eradication program near the house and buildings because carpenter ants freaking love blackjack oaks. They’re super strong in the outer layers, so the ants can hollow them out without killing the tree.

It gave me no end of pleasure listening to the ants pop in the fireplace on a cold winter day…

 

[SoonerP226]

That was the right choice. Man ... Looking at those pics give me the willies ...

Remind me to never show you pictures of my place. That tree is just a baby compared to some of the red oaks around my house.

 

[Roadking Larry]

Remind me to never show you pictures of my place. That tree is just a baby compared to some of the red oaks around my house.

It was only 36" across at the the cut and about 40" front to back.

 

[THAT Gurl]

It was only 36" across at the the cut and about 40" front to back.

I'd bet you the oak over at the neighbor's is every bit that big. Now I'm wondering if it just looks healthy on the outside and is getting eaten from the inside out. I might need to bring this to the lawyers' attention.

 

[Roadking Larry]

This one wasn't dropping limbs and even during the big ice storm we had in '07 didn't take any severe damage and didn't drop anything on the roof. But, I knew it had a deep hollow spot at the base though no idea how far it extended up the trunk.

 

[SoonerP226]

I'd bet you the oak over at the neighbor's is every bit that big. Now I'm wondering if it just looks healthy on the outside and is getting eaten from the inside out. I might need to bring this to the lawyers' attention.

I had a red oak hanging over my deck that died maybe 10 years ago. (It was easy to tell--it was the only one that still had its leaves in the middle of winter.) It might've been 16" in diameter about 4' above ground, but was easily as tall as Larry's white oak, it just didn't have the spread due to all the other big trees around it.

A friend of my dad's owns a lawn care service, so he came out and took a look at it. He said he had a couple of Mexicans that he called in to do tree service for his clients, and he'd ask them to come take care of it.

Unfortunately, this was around the time of some big illegal immigration crackdown (maybe that law the legislature passed to make it harder to hire illegals?). I don't know if they were illegals or if they just thought the law was going to make the state too hostile of an environment for them, but either way, they boogied on down the road, so my dad and I went with plan B: a long steel cable with a length of chain attached to one end and his little Komatsu dozer.

We got the chain around the tree as high as we could get it, then ran the cable up the hill to the dozer, and started pulling on the tree. I figured, being dead, that it would probably break, but all it did was shake out some dead branches (which scared my dog, which, in turn, gave me the bright idea of getting her out of harm's way and into her crate in the living room--which turned out to be a good idea, as one of the branches that fell later was heavy enough to break the steel cable of her aerial run that traversed the deck ).

Anyhow, that dozer pulled hard, but, even dead, that tree was hell for stout, and the best the dozer could do was pull the top of the tree so that it was no longer hanging over the deck, and was hanging slightly in the opposite direction. We ended up using the dozer to pull it away from the house while I used a chainsaw to cut it, making sure I could run like hell if it decided to kick back when it fell...