I saw this tree from about 4 blocks away while working at another job 4 years ago. I had taken pictures of it because of its size above the rest of the surrounding trees. It was a magnificent tree but was in decline and got a call to bid on it. After doing the first video with almost no human hand touching the tree, I wanted to do the opposite for this one. Plus I have a picture in my kitchen of a large redwood that has a man on a horse in the hollow section, fallen with crosscut saws. I'll be honest during the, shit just got real moment, which came early in the day, I wanted to quit and rip out the saw. We had to do it in one day because weather was coming in and everything was rented for that day (camera equip). It was by far one of the hardest things we've done. Crosscut saws and axes seem like a good idea when one is sitting on a couch. I'm the guy in the brown shirt with the beard and my brother n law is in the blue. I believe it was 94 degrees that day, I'd say we are bonded in some weird way after doing that.
I learned I'm not good at sharpening crosscut saws and your mind really starts problem solving when your an hour into using a slowwwww saw to cut through 18"-30" wood. Meaning how can I make the the fewest and biggest cut to dissect the tree before I run out of gas. We rigged all the pieces out but one large top limb and the stem. Once the top was down we started on the base. I quickly realized it was going to take more than we had left in us to complete the cut. I desperately called all my friends and they came to help with the final cut. That bottom cut took 5 hours before the fall of the stem and many turns of guys on the saw. I worked with the videographer on both videos and we have a good relationship. He was in the CMC 83hd lift with an umbrella for the shoot. Im glad we can say we did it but I have no interest in ever doing it again. We did get the stem out in a 30' piece and having it slabbed up for something special.
