If a tree falls................

Trade

Well-known Member
One morning last week about 5:30 am I heard a big crash from my back yard. It was still dark so I went out with a flash light and saw that part of this huge Live Oak tree had split off and fell. When I say huge I mean really huge. This sucker must have sprouted from an acorn sometime before the civil war. The part that is still standing I'd esimate to be at least 75 feet tall. These pictires I took do not do justice to the scale of this thing. The part that fell covers at least half of my back yard. And I have a big back yard.

Fortunately the tree is in a far corner of my yard so it did not hit the house. My brother in laws son had some tree work done recently that he was very satistfied with so I called the guy and he gave me an esimate of $2,000 to clear it all out which I nthought was really good considering the amount of work involved. But he has a lot of work and is running three weeks out so I still have about 2 more weeks to wait before it gets done.
 

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One morning last week about 5:30 am I heard a big crash from my back yard. It was still dark so I went out with a flash light and saw that part of this huge Live Oak tree had split off and fell. When I say huge I mean really huge. This sucker must have sprouted from an acorn sometime before the civil war. The part that is still standing I'd esimate to be at least 75 feet tall. These pictires I took do not do justice to the scale of this thing. The part that fell covers at least half of my back yard. And I have a big back yard.

Fortunately the tree is in a far corner of my yard so it did not hit the house. My brother in laws son had some tree work done recently that he was very satistfied with so I called the guy and he gave me an esimate of $2,000 to clear it all out which I nthought was really good considering the amount of work involved. But he has a lot of work and is running three weeks out so I still have about 2 more weeks to wait before it gets done.
When something like that happens here, it's a conifer that falls over. Usually it's one on the fringe of the thick grove to the west of our fenced area. Last time it happened, the upper portion of the tree smashed some of the deer fencing, and messed up wires on our electric (bear) fencing. No protection against bear incursions until I got the tree cut up, and the fencing repaired.
 
Around here you would simply advertise “free firewood - bring your chainsaw”.

I don't have a fireplace. A lot of houses around here do. But it's April and this is lower Alabama. Fireplace season is over. We are heading into air conditioning season. Not a lot of demand for firewood for the next 6 or 7 months.
 
Our neighbor had a tree that fell much like yours. It split also. He had someone cut it up and take away the huge branches but he wanted to sell the wood. So most people wanted it for free, plus they wanted it split. Bottum line: 2 years later he still has big pieces of tree that sits in his yard getting rotten. $2000 will buy you a nice clean quiet backyard again! Good luck, either way.
 
That's a lot of tree. Luckily it missed any buildings. I had a water Oak hit the edge of my garage. Damaged the roof and brick. Now I've got another massive Water Oak that needs to come down because it's messing with my foundation.

I don't know much about Live Oaks. Have they got those massive roots that get everywhere, many of them on the surface?

I'm doing the same as you. Let the tree people haul away the wood. Chances are if they do want to sell firewood they have the equipment for splitting it.
 
If you really want to know its age, have it carbon dated and never mind the cost. Can you find any kind of nuts so maybe you can plant them in big pots and leave outside to grow? They are said to grow incredibly fast when young. Are you going to have the standing half removed? I looked up age and it said that trees the size of yours are from 500 to 1000 yrs old. What a treasure!
 
One morning last week about 5:30 am I heard a big crash from my back yard. It was still dark so I went out with a flash light and saw that part of this huge Live Oak tree had split off and fell. When I say huge I mean really huge. This sucker must have sprouted from an acorn sometime before the civil war. The part that is still standing I'd esimate to be at least 75 feet tall. These pictires I took do not do justice to the scale of this thing. The part that fell covers at least half of my back yard. And I have a big back yard.

Fortunately the tree is in a far corner of my yard so it did not hit the house. My brother in laws son had some tree work done recently that he was very satistfied with so I called the guy and he gave me an esimate of $2,000 to clear it all out which I nthought was really good considering the amount of work involved. But he has a lot of work and is running three weeks out so I still have about 2 more weeks to wait before it gets done.
You're lucky it didn't hit anything.
 
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