I have many large oak trees in my yard and have them pruned occasionally to remove the dead wood. It is expensive, but I prefer that to having heavy objects unexpectedly dropping from the sky. Last time, the tree service pointed out one oak with a large hole about 20 feet up (he stuck his arm into the hole up to his elbow). I consulted with another tree company (computer analyzed core drilling to assess wood strength) and they suggested cabling for structural support. I thought about it and decided rather than an engineered solution, I would rather lose a damaged tree and avoid the possibility of catastrophic failure.
Last Friday I had the tree taken down. I opted to have them leave the wood for me. At first, I was questioning my sanity because it was a huge amount of work to split and move it all (about 2 cords). But I am glad I did. At first, the wood all looked good and I was feeling badly that I dropped a perfectly good tree. It wasn't until I got closer and actually started splitting that I found many sections where the outer 2-4 inches was solid, but the inner 12 inch diameter was soft. In time, it would only get worse and this tree would have failed. I now have peace of mind that I made the right choice.
My neighbors get all of the credit in the world - they bailed me out
BIG TIME! There is no way I could have gotten through that job without their help. 30 inch circumference oak logs are
HEAVY - but JM showed me how to do it right (and did most of the heavy lifting). PT & his tractor were critical in moving the split wood to the back yard. The wives and kids pitched in to help, too. Every log they moved was one less I had to move. They are all the best (and I owe them
big time!).
