Wow what a huge amount of work! Two weeks after we moved in a tree fell in storm. We cleaned it up, but identified 6 other dead and standing trees on the property that were also at risk of falling. Had a tree service cut the 6 down. It would have cost a fortune for the service to also clean everything up, and would have been a tremendous waste as they just take logs to the dump. Instead, I decided I would do the cleanup to save some money, stash away some firewood, and score some logs to mill into boards for woodworking.
Notes:
- Just getting to the trees to evaluate the situation was an absolute mess. The yard was so overgrown you couldn’t get to the base of the trees without getting eaten by bugs, snagged and whipped by branches, and covered in burrs. Full clothes with mosquito net required in the heat of the summer.
- After some back and forth, we hired a company called great oak tree service to fell the trees. They were ok. Went unresponsive for about a month after we had settled on a price. Paid $4k to fell the 6 trees, which seems a bit steep in retrospect given the number of hours I put into cleanup. The trees were in hard to reach places tho, and climbing was required. There was some collateral damage, but overall the trees came down on November 7th smoothly and with a big thud.
- The trees were split between two areas: 3 on the south side, 3 on the north side. The 3 on the south side were considerably smaller.
- I did the cleanup on the southside in one push on November 18th. It was a long gruelling day. Probably 8-10 hours of hard labor. Later, on November 26th I burned the brush. It had snowed the night before and wind was extremely light, so very safe. Took a while to get the fire started but it was massive and the coals smoldered well into the night and were still warm the next day.
- The north side mess was significantly larger. I estimate that it was 3x the work of the south side. I decided that doing a big push wasn’t possible and probably wasn’t safe, since mistakes get made when you’re tired. Starting Jan 1st, I set out to chip away at it one tank of chainsaw fuel at a time. The tank would last something like 1-1.5 hours, and then I would do another hour of sorting into woodworking logs, firewood, and burn pile. I think it took ~5-6 total tanks of gas, and I finished the chainsaw work on Feb 10th. Was lucky to have a relatively dry and warm winter which allowed me to get out and make progress. Finally, I made a final push on a three day weekend ending Feb 19th: I stacked all the firewood (logs not yet split), I rolled the logs destined for the mill to the front of the lot, and I burned 3 large brush piles. Rolling the logs was brutal. 9 logs in total, each weighing 600-1300 pounds, and obstacles abound. Somehow, I managed to do it all myself. I pushed the logs, used a peavy, and rolled them onto scrap logs ~3” in diameter to balance and rotate. Each log took ~45 minutes. Burning went without a hitch. Managing 3 fires at a time was interesting, but never felt overwhelming. Did it on a day with light wind and took all the safety precautions, like having a hose on standby.
- I estimate this will yield > 1000 bdft of hardwood (mostly read oak, but also some walnut and white oak) worth something north of $5k, and maybe 3-4 full chords of firewood worth something like $1.2-2k. I estimate that I spent on the order of 50 hours doing all the cleanup and burning. Still need to pay for milling service, but assuming that costs $1500, that means I yielded $5.5k in value ($5k + $2k - $1.5k) for 50 hours of work, or $110 / hour. Not bad! And that doesn’t even count how much it would have cost to have someone else do the work, which would have been something like $5-10k or more. Great decision to DIY!
The table below has the dimensions of all the logs that I want to have milled into boards. There are 2 24-28” stumps that I didn’t get measurements for. The “Tree #” column uses the same numbering as the filenames in the photos.
| Tree # | Species | Length (ft) | Diameter (average, in) | Est. Yield (bdft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| n/a | Walnut | 5.3 | 16.5 | 49 |
| 1 | Walnut | 2.12 | 16.5 | 20 |
| 1 | Walnut | 8.12 | 15.5 | 66 |
| 1 | Walnut | 5.75 | 14.5 | 34 |
| 2 | Walnut | 6.75 | 13 | 30 |
| 2 | Walnut | 8 | 11.5 | 28 |
| 3 | White Oak | 8.12 | 12.5 | 36 |
| 4 | Red Oak | 8 | 20 | 128 |
| 4 | Red Oak | 8 | 19.5 | 120 |
| 4 | Red Oak | 8 | 17.5 | 91 |
| 4 | Red Oak | 9.5 | 14.5 | 62 |
| 5 | Red Oak | 10.5 | 18.5 | 131 |
| 5 | Red Oak | 10 | 16 | 90 |
| 5 | Red Oak | 8.5 | 14.5 | 55 |
| 6 | Red Oak | 9.5 | 14.5 | 62 |
| 6 | Red Oak | 7.5 | 13 | 35 |
| Total: | 1037 |
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