Wind smashes massive tree onto my neighbours flatbed

[Random Orbital Bob]

Woke up this morning after the gales last night to my neighbour walking towards my front door carrying a chainsaw. This is ominous I thought. We wandered down the lane to where he's building his new house to find the gales had brought down a good 50 footer right on top of his van and metal site fencing. It missed his house, it missed his portable crapper too!

I'm still not entirely certain whether this is an Ash or a cricket bat willow. It looks like Ash and some of the larger pieces have olive ash type heartwood but its not as dense as the ash I'm used to. The grain is very close like Ash and the bark looks like Ash. But......there's tons of cricket bat willow planted round here because the local cricket club is ancient and they used to plant them all the time over a 100 years ago. Anyway 3 of us took literally all day to clear up the carnage with 3 chainsaws, a digger and a dumper which my neighbour happened to have on site due to the building work (very handy too). There was a lot of wood!

The damage to his van was surprisingly modest....one door totalled and windscreen destroyed. As for the metal fencing, unrecognisable. That thing weighed a fair bit for sure.

Feast your eyes on this little lot. In the end we dumped four full digger loads of sawn butts ready to turn into blanks, slabs or firewood depending on if its any good. Tomorrow when the light returns I'll snap the finished pile...its enormous What a bizarre day.

 

[Baldhead]

I'm surprised there wasn't more damage to his pick-up, looking at the first pictures you would expect some serious damage!

I hope the timber is going to be used make some nice things for him to display in his new home when it's built.

Baldhead

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I was absolutely amazed it didn't total his truck. If you'd seen how it completely mangled the metal site fencing you'd have thought it would have been a lot worse. I think the bulk of the fall was broken by the top of the flat bed. It has a kind of roll bar type arrangement which was dented but I think that took the brunt then the tree fell to the right destroying the door and windscreen.

 

[MMUK]

At least it missed the *******, I guess he'll be needing that :lol:

 

[Grahamshed]

I guess every cloud has a silver lining. You were really in need of some new bits of tree weren't you.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

At least it missed the *******, I guess he'll be needing that :lol:

Very good MM

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I guess every cloud has a silver lining. You were really in need of some new bits of tree weren't you.

I know...would you believe it Graham....after all that exhaustive blinkin' chainsawing I've just done deliberately...then this act of god decides I should do a heap more. I'm just off to take a snap of the pile cos the light had gone when we finished last night. I'll also pick up whats left of my spine while I'm out there!

I'll post it later cos for the rest of today I need to build a guinea pig enclosure I promised one of the villagers.

 

[Hivenhoe]

Lucky escape but his truck might have hidden damage to the chassis and it's surprising how little damage warrants a write off for many insurance co's. Not meaning to be a Job's comfort but should get it and the remaining trees checked!

 

[paulm]

Looks like a lovely straight trunk of olive ash Rob

Once I've shaken off the remnants of my attack of the lergy and can find the energy to get off the sofa again I'll pop over with the saw and mill and lend a hand, perhaps slab some of it up if you want.

Look forwards to seeing the pics of the log pile later !

Cheers, Paul

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

We've had to turn the majority into butts for the sake of expediency but all the bigger end of the trunk I've left a out 2 foot long so they will be great for platter/bowl blanks and/or slabbing for smaller stock like boxes or coffee tables etc

There is one about 8 foot length of the very base of the tree that could be slabbed but its pretty wide.

 

[paulm]

Might still be do'able Rob, if you wanted slabs/planks that is.

The saw has a 24" bar and will cut about 22" with the mill mounted, but for wider logs it's possible to take a slab off the outside, rotate the log 180 degrees and take a slab off the opposite side, rotate 90 degrees so you now have a log with two straight'ish sides and correspondingly narrower, and then plank that up.

Does suppose though that you want planks/slabs, and that you can move the log around which can be a feat in itself !

I often slab bigger stuff to around 5" or 6" depth if unsure on final usage. Allows for decent depth bowl blanks and/or reducing in depth subsequently for platters or flat work, help lose a bit of moisture too and makes it easier/lighter to handle after a while which always helps !

Cheers, Paul

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

There's definitely some stock worth planking for a nice table top etc. The actual butt that ended in the rootball splits in two so it will have a natural olive crotch that I imagine will be quite something to behold. I reckon a 24" blade with sides skimmed off will do it as its not that big. The chap who's van I mullered with it has a digger so we can always move it with that if we need to...he's a pretty decent guy. I reckon the tree was circa 70 years old, perhaps a little more.

Take double lemsip tonight Paul....need you to get better

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

As promised here's the pile of Olive Ash in the beautiful sunlight of this morning (bit too much for the iphones light meter in fact)

I split one just to get a good look at that olive heartwood and its really lovely. Shades of walnut/Laburnum in fact.

 

[MMUK]

If you hear a Renault Master with a dodgy gearbox and blue words eminating from within one dark night it'll only be me sneaking up to pinch some of that

 

[paulm]

Wow, looks lovely stuff Rob

Feeling a bit brighter already ! Should be good for later in the week/weekend, depending on how you're fixed, weather and rugby permitting !!!

Cheers, Paul

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Just gimme a tinkle when you're fit Paul. It's not going anywhere.

 

[Grahamshed]

If you hear a Renault Master with a dodgy gearbox and blue words eminating from within one dark night it'll only be me sneaking up to pinch some of that

And in a similar vein.
If you see someone driving up in a dark blue toyota and sneaking around the wood pile...... That will be MMUK too :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I should probably stop publishing mouth watering pictures of split open heartwood really

 

[shim20]

it was a toyota flat bed what did you expect im surprised the tree didnt break in half :lol:

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

ah yes....shades of that classic Top Gear where they ended up with the Toyota on a building they demolished. Of course once plucked from the rubble it still started (Wonder how much Toyota paid the Beeb for that