Dropping a large tree

In our annual quest for 4 cords of wood we do manage to drop a lot of trees.  I never top them or do anything fancy - I look for standing trees that I can turn into lying trees for easy cutting.  Today's adventure started like most others - badly.  I normally throw a line into the tree so it can be "helped" to the ground and guided in the direction that I would like it to fall.  Today the tree went straight up for 20 feet then forked with a narrow crotch that made a challenge of throwing anything through it.

After 10 or 15 minutes I managed to get my rope and branch thrown through the crotch (the branch is about a  foot long, with the rope tied in the middle - you throw it through, give it a pull and it (ideally) wedges crosswise and you can pull against it easily).  After I got the rope through I made my cuts.  The first cuts remove a large shallow wedge from the direction you want the tree to fall.

 Next is a plunge cut that leaves a hinge right behind the wedge:

The side view shows (starting at the left) the shallow wedge, hinge, plunge cut that goes all of the way through and a ligament that holds the tree steady.  The problem with the traditional wedge/backcut is that the tree becomes increasingly unstable until it falls.  The beauty of this method is that you can get to this point and have a safe tree condition.  Then you make one quick cut through the ligament and the tree comes down right where you expect it to.

At least that's the way it should work.  Today I tensioned the rope, made the last cut and the tree didn't move.  I went and pulled some more on the rope and the tree didn't move, but my rope and anchor branch did; they came right out of the crotch and fell into a pile on the ground where they were doing absolutely nothing about helping to bring my tree down.  I spent 20 minutes trying to throw my rope through again, broke a rope with a come-along (10 minutes), threw a smaller piece of rope with a weight on it through the crotch (10 minutes), pulled a larger rope up, secured it to the tree with a running bowline, and pulled the tree over with the help of a very entertained neighbor (thanks Tim).

Another hour of cutting (while Patty gave the splitter another workout) and the tree was reduced to nicely burnable chunks.  A few loads were brought up and stacked in the woodshed today, and tomorrow we'll bring in the rest and be ready for another cold Pittsburgh winter.

"Cut your own wood and it will warm you twice."   Indeed.