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by on 9.20.08

cut it down! cut it down!

One of the items on my agenda this week was the removal of a large tree in the front of our church property. A Douglas Fir, it was about 160-180 yrs old. A big one, but not what they call “old growth”.

I will attempt to post video at some point, but here are some pictures.

One funny thing happened about noon, when our neighbouring elementary school let out for lunch. The kids saw what was going on and rushed out to have a closer look. As the fallers were taking the tree down section by section, they started a chant of “Cut it down! Cut it down!” They let out a big cheer when a huge section ‘bit the dust’.

Some pics:

The Victim

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The last cut in progress:

The Final Cut in progress

All on the ground…

Timber2

More work to come… hooking our church building up to the sewer is next on the agenda.

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Filed Under: Fun and games, Personal

Comments

  1. Rory says
    9.21.08 at 11:40 am

    Praise the Lord!

    …the lumberjacks descended, and the saws came, and the children yelled, and beat upon that tree; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. – Matt 7:27 in the RRSV

  2. Duncan says
    9.22.08 at 10:53 am

    Thinking about how big that thing was, I found some interesting stuff here (my bold):

    On a medium site (III) at low elevations, height growth, which averages 61 cm (24 in) annually at age 30, continues at a rate of 15 cm (6 in) per year at age 100, and 9 cm (3.6 in) at age 120 (18,39). Trees 150 to 180 cm (60 to 72 in) in diameter and 76 m (250 ft) in height are common in old-growth forests (22). The tallest tree on record, found near Little Rock, WA, was 100.5 m (330 ft) tall and had a diameter of 182 cm (71.6 in). Coastal Douglas-fir is very long lived; ages in excess of 500 years are not uncommon and some have exceeded 1,000 years. The oldest Douglas-fir of which there is an authentic record stood about 48 km (30 mi) east of Mount Vernon, WA. It was slightly more than 1,400 years old when cut (39).

    If that tree was 5′ wide at the base, it may not be too much of an exaggeration to guess that it may have actually been about 150-200 ft tall. Not sure that’s quite right, but I do remember that it was huge.

  3. ox says
    9.22.08 at 4:50 pm

    I think that is probably about right on the height. It was quite something to watch the faller who was on the “de-limbing” process. He had on climbing spurs and a rope harness that held him to the tree. He methodically worked his way up, getting rid of limbs (some big enough to be split when they came down) as he went. When he got close to the top … way up there … he cut off the tip like a branch, then methodically worked his way down. He cut off fairly big chunks each step of the way, until they got to the last bit which was cut from the ground.

    Video will follow, at some point.

    Maranatha!
    Don Johnson
    Jer 33.3

  4. Duncan says
    9.22.08 at 5:27 pm

    Can’t wait to see the video. Hey, who got all the wood?

  5. ox says
    9.22.08 at 8:20 pm

    Cam and Hans split it up between them. (heh, heh, how punny!)

    Hans said he had about 3 cords, he estimated, and Cam had a humongous amount, about 5 cords.

    Too bad we couldn’t have taken it down for lumber, but too expensive to do one tree like that.

    Maranatha!
    Don Johnson
    Jer 33.3

  6. Rory says
    9.23.08 at 6:05 am

    Just curious. Who is going to uproot the stump? I imagine that will be quite a job and may create a major mess of the parking lot.

  7. ox says
    9.23.08 at 6:32 am

    Next week we are getting hooked up to the sewer. When they have the excavator in to dig the line, they are going to dig out the stump.

    Yes, it will be a big job. I hope no complications, but we shall see. In the end, we will have a nice new parking lot. Big mess in the meantime.

    Maranatha!
    Don Johnson
    Jer 33.3