Every Tree, A Saga

 

It took most of the total time just to get to this point.  You need to cut on opposite sides of the trunk in order to have the tree fall where you want, but the ash was right up against the pine until about 15 feet up.

I made the cut you see with a manual saw and then climbed up the pine, another 20-30 feet and tried to push the ash over.  The problem was that all of the torque was at the base of the tree.  So I tied the two trees together--just below the cut and tried again.  This time, I just wasn't strong enough to cause the cut to snap, but I brought a rope with me and tied it about 30 feet above the cut.  I tried to use the truck but it was dead, so I pulled over the tree with the Subaru.

The bricks were already fallen, before the tree came down--though I was prepared to let the tree do this, if the wall had still been up.  The bricks are from the front sidewalk, which I moved because I thought they might be destroyed by the eventual front porch project.  Even it they weren't destroyed, they would need to be moved, so I stored them along this rotten picket fence.

The rope which pulled down the tree was removed before this picture, but was attached about where the trunk hit the bricks.

The large oak which you see in the direction of the fallen ash was used to direct the rope to the left, which is where I could get the car into.  Also, it's not a great idea, unless you have plenty of length, to pull a tree down upon yourself.