Our Maker's Acres Family Farm: Keeping a Tree From Falling on my Garden Fence

A few confessions before we get started: I am not a lumberjack and I don't own a chainsaw. I have never had formal training in the proper procedure for felling a tree, so this shouldn't be used as a "How To" photo essay (much like many other posts on our blog). We try to use common sense to solve problems that arise on an almost daily basis. Sometimes we are successful and ~~sometimes~~ many times we experience failure, but we're always learning. We seem to learn more from our failures than our successes and sometimes we fail more than once before getting it right. Ha!

I admitted in the paragraph above the things that I don't possess. One of the things that my wife would quickly tell you that I do possess is a hard-headed nature that wants to get things done - quickly. Yesterday one of the items on my to do list was to chop down a tree. There was one little complication.

As discussed in a post earlier this month, we've had an infestation of red oak borers that is killing some of our water oak trees near the barn. So far two of them have died and one is dying. The dead ones are starting to drop limbs. These trees are all being crowded out by larger pecan trees and this makes them grow at an angle. The photo below evidences this fact. You can see that they are growing toward the right. Directly to the right is our freshly planted garden and newly constructed fence. You might remember the new fence was required after the goats broke through the old one and got into the garden. There was much gnashing of teeth over that, lemme tell you. Anyway, I don't want the tree to fall over the new fence and into the garden.

If you step backwards and hold a string with a weight on it up to the tree, you can see visually the 'break-over' point at which you need to pull the tree so that you can encourage it to fall the other way. So I grabbed my come-along (cable puller), rope, chains and ax and got to work.

Leaning oaks

I got a tall ladder and tied the rope as high as I dared to climb and attached the come along to the end. Then I anchored the other side to a pecan tree in the opposite direction of the garden. The pecan tree is sturdy and serves as a support to my wood pile. A pile that I've stacked and re-stacked more times than you can count. The goats keep climbing on top and I've conceded and accepted defeat in having neatly stacked wood. I now just have a wood pile, but I digress.

I began pulling on the come along, ratcheting until the tree no longer had a lean. Pleased with the progress, I moved to the next step.

Pulling the tree straight

I took my old faithful ax and began to chop a big notch in the direction that I would like the tree to fall. I wanted it to be a big notch so that when it hinges over, it will topple completely and not just close the gap. I cut about 1/3 of the way through it and then moved to the next step.

How much wood does a wood chuck chuck?

I moved back to the come along and pulled and pulled and pulled. Can you notice that the tree is now leaning away from the garden, whereas it was leaning toward the garden? Progress! At one point, I ran out of cable, so I chained the two trees together, loosened the come along to get more slack, and reattached it. Then I unchained the two trees and began tightening the come along again. (That's why you see the chain hanging from the tree I'm chopping on.) Once I had it tightened up I moved to the next order of business.

Everyone needs somebody to lean on

It is time for the tree to come down! I had Benjamin move the dog a safe distance away and I ensured that the chickens were well clear of the 'fall zone.' Then I took my ax and began to cut downward on the backside of the tree opposite the notch. Immediately the tree weakened and I was able to yell, "Timber!!!" The tree fell, missing the fence by the skin of my teeth.

On the ground, successfully

Tomorrow after work, I'll limb out the tree and drag the limbs to the burn pile. I'll borrow a chainsaw and cut up the tree for firewood. Then I'll chop the stump until it is either flush with the ground or gone.

If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it fall, does it make a sound? Hmmm...

I always like to assess the situation and determine how to do it better next time. There are at least two things that I think I could have done differently. First, the next time I do this, I won't do it by myself, but will get some help. Secondly, I'll pull the come-along tighter and will continue pulling it as the tree starts to lean more in order to keep the tension on it so that it falls exactly where I want it to. It didn't fall on the fence or in the garden, but it was a little too close for comfort.

Here's the next tree: It is bigger around...