For years we've been troubled with tree damage due to severe weather here on the steep valley side; obviously this seldom happens in nice warm dry conditions.
Last February three severe storms came up the valley ending up with yet another damaged tree this being a 50' tall "Crack Willow" living up to its name; this tree had three very thick trunks one of the trunks developed a long split rendering it unsafe. Working in wind driven sleet I removed this trunk and logged it for a neighbours woodburner shredding the brash to use as mulch; what an enjoyable job.
Having enjoyed being dragged up our mountain of a rear garden so much in hostile conditions I thought I've had enough of this problem so whilst I'm in fighting mood to sort it out once and for all. I felled and disposed of 15 very tall trees in just two weeks working entirely on my own slipping and sliding around whilst wrapped up like an Eskimo; the heavy "Site" clothing kept the rain and sleet out but then as work progressed and I warmed up I was wet with sweat.
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Our former neighbour had a gardener and for eight years my wife and I became very good friends with him; he was a family guy with two almost adult lads and we knew the family to be short of funds so we helped him when we could; he had five petrol mowers plus other kit and years ago told me he had these serviced locally at a cost of around £60 each sometimes losing the use for up to six weeks; I'm a mechanical engineers so such work comes easily to me; I took on servicing the mowers free of labour charge as I did repairs to his kit; having done this for a few years I decided to show him how to do a basic service; I removed a spark plug and took him to our local Auto supply store and introduced him to the store owner; now he could service each mower for around £5 himself know how to buy the correct plug and oil.
We gave him all manner of things; when his petrol hedge trimmer died we gave him our heavy duty Spear & Jackson petrol hedge trimmer; my wife gave him all sorts of things too; we never received anything back not even a thank you from his wife whom we never met; he always told us if ever we needed help just to call him and he'd be straight here. Normally I do everything around home and gardens on my own not asking for or even paying for help but this willow tree was over hanging the fence into our neighbours garden so we thought we'd help him a bit and I sent an email stating we were happy to pay him £100 just for help with this one tree; he jumped at the offer of the £100 and replied saying let him know when; I then bought a set of heavy duty ropes through eBay these to arrive as I was felling the other trees.
The ropes arrived so I emailed him and waited for a reply; I emailed him again and awaited a reply and waited and waited so I roped each remaining willow trunk but did the one easiest to fell into our garden now for the really difficult overhanging trunk the largest of the lot; I dreamed up an idea of how to safely fell this working on my own a way I'd never previously seen done. Looking at this problem I knew I wanted to fell it across the garden; then the idea popped into my head; I could prevent the trunk from going uphill or downhill by adding very strong ropes but how to do this? I marked a place half way across the garden exactly where to drop the trunk then I wandered up the garden leaving one end of the rope with at least 6' spare length at the marked place then wandered up the garden and securely wrapped and tied the other end around one of the heavy stumps; now I did the same at the bottom but this time used our standing oak tree to secure the rope to; my reasoning was that now these two ropes would guide the fall after all the trunk couldn't go anywhere else other than over the fence or into our garden. Next I climbed as high as I could up the willow and secured the end of a rope this the pulling rope but to ensure as I cut the trunk didn't go over the fence I secured the other end of the rope to our huge spruce tree so I could cut with confidence which I did; I cut and now the trunk was only secured by the three ropes as the wind buffeted me.
Now for the major problem; the trunk was safe but I found I was too weak to pull it over it was overhanging too much and very heavy indeed being so wet; this is why I wanted a bit of help. Still on my own I popped down to the garden hut for yet another two strong ropes and to collect my 2,500Lb pull winch; up the tree again and attach a rope also attach a second rope right across the garden securing it to the spruce now I had the winch between both ropes and having taken up slack started to ratchet; slowly the trunk started to come upright and once it was vertical I walked away from the winch to the pulling rope and now giving it a very strong pull the trunk landed at my feet; the top branch kissing my coat; I'd measured the height but this was rather close.
How did I measure the height of such tall standing trees well as I usually do I did some research first and was pleased to find a very easy solution on YouTube removing all guesswork and I can confidently say this method really does work even on such a steep slope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khRMzxONpLg
All 15 trees were felled safely within a couple of feet of planned fall position.
Having finally felled and disposed of the lot just leaving stumps once again I emailed the gardener explaining he was no longer needed; at last he replied stating he'd been off work ill for a week which I could normally accept; what my wife and could not accept was that he had the decency to let all his customers know he would be missing a visit but hadn't even the decency to let us know on top of everything we'd done for him he had agreed to accept the £100 offered when after all we'd done for him I expected him to at least offer to help free of charge but if he had done this we'd still have given him the money; 2023 is now a lot different for us; we'll not do any future free favours. Having spent a terrible two weeks in appalling working conditions having felled so many trees and logging them struggling whilst slipping and sliding to get the logs down to the street not one of the neighbours who collected the free nicely cut logs offered the slightest help.
Whilst doing all this work I was 74 years of age now I'm 75 and in August had a run in with subsidence damage possibly a story for another thread.
I hope this is of interest and many videos are on YouTube showing tree fails. We've just suffered more gale force winds but no longer a tree problem for us. The gardener let himself down not us and he's now history.
Kind regards, Colin.