Saturday was a nail biter at the Wisneski household.
My husband, Brian, and his buddy, Tony, decided to take down two large trees in our backyard. One had large, dead limbs dangling and shaded our entire yard and the other appeared diseased. Brian and Tony had successfully removed trees from other friends’ yards in the past and felt confident they could tackle this project. With the help of a couple other guys, my father and a friend, they set to work Saturday morning.
I was, of course, hesitant. Not because I doubted their abilities, but because I tend to think of everything that could go wrong – the tree falls onto our house, our neighbor’s home or worse, someone gets hurt or killed. I have become much more worrisome with age. Rather than sit around the house pacing, I decided to go to a friend’s house. My 17-year-old was at work for the day, so I packed my 21-month-old daughter, Cora, up and we left shortly after the first of three, near 60-foot sections on the first and largest tree dropped successfully into the yard, exactly where the guys had planned. Phew!
A few hours later, I did a drive by to see what progress was being made. Using a ladder, a chainsaw and ropes, they had successfully dropped the second, smaller tree, but the two remaining sections of the larger tree remained. I didn’t think twice about it, though. Things looked like they were progressing smoothly, and I was somewhat relieved. Two down, two to go. Everything would be okay.
I went back to my friend’s house and had dinner. Right as we were finishing, I received a phone call from my husband. Everyone was okay, but the chainsaw was stuck in the tree. We needed to talk about what our next step would be.
I drove home, hoping he was joking. Then I saw the two sections were still standing and there was a large, angled notch in one of the sections, a chainsaw pinched in the tree (where Tony had been sawing on the opposite side of the notch) and a rope midway up the section and tied to another tree in the yard pulling in the direction of the notched side.
The thought process was the notch would force the tree to fall in the direction of the missing section; however, most of that section’s branches were on the other side of the notched trunk, which meant the weight was pulling in the wrong direction towards our neighbor’s shed and garage.
As Brian updated me on the situation and our options, we could hear the tree cracking. It wanted to go soon.
We decided to call Stan Dombroski of Timber Tree Service. I had met Stan years ago at a Baldwinsville Rotary luncheon and Brian and I frequent his shop at 2088 Church Road in Baldwinsville (they have excellent horseradish mustard) for specialty items and mulch. I called his cell phone and, within minutes, he was at our house. He just happened to be at Quaker Steak & Lube, and we live in Seneca Knolls, so it was a short drive.
Stan assessed the situation, said the chainsaw was probably holding the tree in place, but it could go at any minute – it was all up to the tree. He said to give him 45 minutes and he’d be back with the appropriate equipment including a bucket lift. Within an hour of calling him, he and his employee, Bob, were back and set up to start trimming the weight loading branches. As Bob did his magic, moving in and out of the branches, trimming trunks and limbs then guiding them to land where he wanted them to, Stan told us he sees this situation a lot – the notch, the rope and the pinched chainsaw. He understood our desire to save money, but he also described situations where the tree could crack and break then slide down towards the heavy side.
This was a scary thought to consider—Tony had been using the chainsaw when it became pinched and my dad was holding the ladder for him. Had Tony been able to saw through the tree, it could have crushed him and my father. In fact, my father believes the saw getting stuck actually saved their lives.
As it turned out, Bob made quick work of cutting the limbs to relieve the weight. Once finished, the guys were then able to pull the section towards the notched angle, and it came down safely. We would have had them finish off the third section, but it was getting dark, so we called it a night. While we now have our work cut out for us trimming branches and stacking firewood, the remaining section needs to be addressed. Be certain we will be calling the professionals in to finish the job safely.
