Spinning Sycamore

[Stereo]

Ridiculous situation today. Taking down some overgrown hedgerow syc. Large clumps of 12"+ stuff. Took down a load and had one big tree left, surrounded by stumps. I'm up on the hedge and it's straight up so I think it can go either way. Put in the cuts and feel the weight coming back so use some wedges. I have 2 planned escape routes at this point if it goes wrong. One is under the tree if it starts coming back at me and the other is down the hedge, hanging onto a stump and protected if it looks like it's going to jump about. We have a rope and the Hilux out in the field to pull it the way we want.

 

So I drive in the wedges and give it the final zing with the saw and remove. At this point I plan to get well clear and instruct driver to pull but he's already off. Then it becomes surreal. The tree jumps off it's hinge onto a lower stump. I'm already halfway down the hedge in escape route 2. The tree starts to spin. I swear it went around 3 times on it's newly adopted stump. It was like slow motion and I'm under it watching it like a rabbit in the headlights. I'm wondering whether to sit tight in my semi protected position or just plain leg it. I stay put. Should have legged it.

 

The tree stops spinning and stands there. At this point I leg it, I even left my beloved Husky. Hilux driver is out of the cab, standing with his gob open. The tension on the rope is keeping it upright and it just stands there. Never seen anything like it.

 

In the end we just tug it over and some words are spoken.

 

Note to self: decide who is in charge and who gives the orders in future.

[farmer_ben]

We had a Sycamore do that couple of years ago, we'd knocked loads down. Bro was on the last one, nice and straight...fairly straight forward...did his cut was about to go when it spun 180 and fell, shook him up a bit as he'd never seen any tree do that before.

[sussexlad]

doesnt sound like much fun!

my general rule is, is i have the saw and im cutting, then im in charge and it is a dictatorship!