Lightening Strike

[Colin]

This may have been the scariest removal I have climbed on. 75 ft Tulip tree struck by lightening, after which Bartlett cabled it (One of the most hacked cable jobs I've ever seen).Broken cabled pieces hanging off it in a rats nest. Stood dead for maybe a year. This thing had stress cracks all up and down it, I was waiting to lose a piece breaking off the picks (real windy right on the water), but thankfully it never happened. Everything went slick as sh!t.

^That's me being an idiot....

 

[cashmoneytreeboy]

try bolt cutters .. WELCOME TO REMOVALS NEAR HOMES

 

[southsoundtree]

Nice work!

 

[Colin]

Didn't have the cutter with us that day, I had to unwrap em and let the pieces drop, tried the hacksaw first, but, damn, that cable is strong.

This removal wasn't that near to the home. Picked a dead weeping beech over this guy's multi $mil house last year though, THAT is a tough tree to pick/climb.

 

[climbncut]

Nice work! Glad everything went "slick as shiat"! Was the log still solid? I've always wanted to mill a log that has a lightning strike through it but haven't run across a good candidate yet. Maybe one day I'll get lucky.

 

[tomthetreeman]

That looked sketchy. Glad it went smooth.

-Tom

 

[Colin]

[ QUOTE ]
Was the log still solid? I've always wanted to mill a log that has a lightning strike through it but haven't run across a good candidate yet. Maybe one day I'll get lucky.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually I was suprised at how solid it was (what a relief), and to tell you the truth, we just split it up as firewood. But the grain was pretty impressive in my book. Lots of purple and yellow, very psychadelic

What kind of mill do you have? I'm looking into getting a small mill that runs off a honda just to try it out. We get a lot of nice wood, and I feel there could be more money made than doing it the boss' (my father's) way: splitting it up and burning/selling it. I have a nice little 6' black walnut log I'm saving to make a stock or two for my rifles.

 

[Blinky]

One dragon, well slayed. It's a nice feeling when those jobs are over and all your parts are still attached and facing the right direction.

Did you uncover and sound the roots? I always do that with dead or dying trees. Falling with one tree is excusable but two would mean I'd have to seek another line of work.

I never count on it but I've found that killer lightning strikes tend to make wedge shaped decay columns that stay fairly narrow, so the trunk doesn't lose TOO much strength.

 

[Colin]

Thanks Blinky.

By "sound the roots" do you mean check them for decay, etc.? If so, I did not, but should have, now that you mention it

. And yes you are right, it did seem the "column" of decay definitely narrowed toward the base.I was surprised at how sound the wood was after cutting below the main crotch split. Good points, and well put. Thanks again.