"How to Take Down a Tree in 3 Easy Steps"

On Saturday RB and I headed to R&L's camp - actually it belongs to multiple family members but I can't keep it straight so in my book it's R&L's. Well we went up to do some four wheeling and drink some beer and have some fun! We did it all and then some. When RB and I got there R&L where behind the house filling up the trailer with wood - not just tossing it in either - L was stacking! So RB and I helped them finish up with that pile then we went and got the splitter and split up a tree and L and I loaded the trailer while RB and R ran the splitter. Nothing like hard work to make a cold beer taste really good. While we were working on that J showed up with a Skid Steer - yeah - I'm not quite sure what all it can do - but let me tell you that it makes short work of trees.

J left again - he had to get a Back Hoe - yeah they have big tools! LOL - so when he got back they discussed the tree they wanted down and started working on getting it down as quickly as possible. J is the one who said that they could get it down in "Three Easy Steps" hence the title of blog.

The "horny tree" - in it's glory.

First though - they had to remove all of the deer horns from the "horny tree" as J called it. R&L's little tractor was good for this - as RB removed all the horns by being in the bucket - (note** - this is the same tractor that RB drove while R&L and I sat in the bucket late at night up at RB's Camp - we were silly and it was a lot of fun!

RB in a bucket!

Digging up the roots of the "horny tree"

Skid Steer hooked up to the tree - roots dug out on the back side.  I'm backing up!!

Going Going...

Going Going... Gone in 1 more minute.

Big Tree - leaves Big Hole!

It's good it came down - if you look in the root ball you'll see an indentation - there was a huge boulder in the hole that would have made this very weak if a big storm hit it - and most likely it would have gone towards the camp.

Hook the tree up to the Skid Steer and start dragging it...

Couldn't use this for inside firewood - the creosote would have been incredible.

Dragging it into the woods.

Disappearing into the woods as R watches it.

Amazing to me that in about 8 minutes that tree was dragged into the woods and J was back with the skid steer.

Cleaning out the stump and other debris.

The end product - no tree - no stump -  no mess - and then we hit the trails on the 4 wheelers!

On Sunday we did more tree work -but the 'old fashioned' way, J cut them down with the chain saw and then into pieces. We, RB, R, L and I, then loaded it into the bucket of the tractor and then stacked it in a pile - it will have a year to dry out and become good wood for burning next year.