Althouse: Meade fells a tree.

April 23, 2011

Meade fells a tree.

53 comments:

David said...: Oh, still in love! How very cute.; 4/23/11, 10:58 PM
1775OGG said...: "A" for effort but otherwise wrong on so many other levels!

Still, it got done and there's praise in doing that!; 4/23/11, 10:59 PM
Meade said...: Ha ha... ha.; 4/23/11, 11:02 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/23/11, 11:10 PM
Tubby Z said...: He's a lumberjack and he's ok...; 4/23/11, 11:13 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: What?!?

You never heard of chainsaws?

At least you didn't have to do a choke set on those puppies.

:-D; 4/23/11, 11:16 PM
Unknown said...: No axe? No chain saw? Just push it over?

I thought Meade was fully equipped.

You can't yell, "Timber!!!!", if you push it over.

I also note Ann was a very safe distance away.

Something I always try (though not always succeed) to achieve with The Blonde.; 4/23/11, 11:17 PM
Terry said...: A real man would have dropped the tree by tying one end of rope to the tree, the other end to his male appendage, and then running away, fast.
By "real man" I mean me.; 4/23/11, 11:18 PM
David said...: Terry, how long have you been dickless? If the answer is "not yet," do not try your tree felling trick.; 4/23/11, 11:21 PM
Terry said...: Sometimes I pull two, three down at a time using the terry method. Big trees. Regular General Shermans.; 4/23/11, 11:23 PM
Gordon Freece said...: I can't believe you posted that on the internet, Ann. Not OK. Meade, if you think it's OK, it isn't OK.; 4/23/11, 11:24 PM
CachorroQuente said...: Amazing.

Can't figure out how he managed to do that without having his sun glasses resting on the bill of his Bontrager hat. For a while I figured that the glasses must have come attached to the hat, but perhaps not.; 4/23/11, 11:27 PM
Mark said...: That's about as "green" a method of felling a tree as you'll ever see.

Of course, Meade was exhaling CO2, so he obviously needs to be regulated.; 4/23/11, 11:27 PM
Meade said...: I just hope Terry never runs into DBQ's choke set.; 4/23/11, 11:33 PM
n said...: Take care of that oak I saw in the background. Love the Siberian Squill. In Illinois, a permit would be needed. Better watch out for the WI DNR.; 4/23/11, 11:39 PM
vbspurs said...: Meade, rrrrr, woof woof, melt!; 4/23/11, 11:41 PM
vbspurs said...: I like how Meade raises his hands in victory without making a single sound. The silence is only broken by his loving, admiring wifey, who encouragingly says, Very Good. He then rushes to the window and gives her a big fat French kiss, and she says on camera, I bet you Dahlia Lithwick never gets kissed like this on her tweeter.; 4/23/11, 11:47 PM
Robert said...: Sapling.

Yawn.; 4/23/11, 11:47 PM
KCFleming said...: A 2007 National Institute of Justice study found that about one in five trees are victims of arboreal assault in Madison; almost all of those incidents go unreported.; 4/23/11, 11:53 PM
Meade said...: See? The rest of you get the full unedited videos too if you would only subscribe at the premium level to Althouse just like vbspurs does.; 4/23/11, 11:58 PM
Almost Ali said...: Deep down, every man wants to be a lumberjack.; 4/24/11, 12:03 AM
Sprezzatura said...: Actually it would be sort of weird to bust out a giant chainsaw for these little guys. And--unless it's your profession--why would anyone bother owning something under two feet. Real men need real chainsaws for real trees, imho.

True lameness would have been seeing Meade w/ a little chainsaw. Or worse, electric.

wv: sperm Not sure what that means.; 4/24/11, 12:04 AM
Peter Hoh said...: Now that was funny!; 4/24/11, 12:09 AM
Meade said...: Oh great. Now I've been citizen's arrested by a 'possum with delusions of Barney Fife grandeur.; 4/24/11, 12:10 AM
Quilly_Mammoth said...: Meade, please never cut down a tree like that that you can't push over yourself. You do realize you were pushing towards the cut and _away_ from the direction the tree should have fallen had you cut more...don't you?

When you cut a notch in a tree the idea is to have it fall in the direction of the notch..this assumes a fully cut _notch_.You were pushing it over the cut.

Way bad. The tree can fall in either direction.; 4/24/11, 12:17 AM
vbspurs said...: Meade wrote:

See? The rest of you get the full unedited videos too if you would only subscribe at the premium level to Althouse just like vbspurs does.

Still waitin', though, on my premium Cafepress t-shirt, New Naked Meadia.; 4/24/11, 12:26 AM
vbspurs said...: Quilly Mammoth, Meade is a landscaper! Of course he knows!

wv: evertip (evergreen tips?); 4/24/11, 12:28 AM
Quilly_Mammoth said...: Clarification. Small trees you make a cut _towards_ the direction you want to make them fall. Make the cut and push/pull tree in that direction.

Bigger trees you make a notch that faces the direction you want the tree to fall.

You see where Meade was standing when he pushed over the tree? That was the side where he should have cut on that size of tree. Then he would have been pushing with the

In other words as he pushed the tree he would have moved away from the cut, opening the gap. Instead Meade muscled the tree over the cut.

I'll bet Meade is one sore fellow on Monday. Nice job though, you got it done.; 4/24/11, 12:35 AM
Quilly_Mammoth said...: I ran a landscape company for years. I learned early on that tree work was not something that I wanted to do...my guys thought every tree problem was an exercise in grunt.Now Grunt works...witness Meade...but Grunt, in the long run costs.; 4/24/11, 12:43 AM
Barbara said...: That's how you celebrate Earth Day -- brutally killing trees? How radical is that?; 4/24/11, 1:36 AM
Gimli 4 the West said...: I fell trees (big 200 ft pines)for a camp during the summer between my Sophomore and Junior year. I met my future wife at the camp who was impressed that I could study chemistry during the school year and be lumberjack during the summer.

Twenty three years later I can still make her laugh with my antics. Meade and I have a good thing going.; 4/24/11, 1:40 AM
Unknown said...: Meade said...

See? The rest of you get the full unedited videos too if you would only subscribe at the premium level to Althouse just like vbspurs does.

What, now this is the Althouse Factor?; 4/24/11, 5:47 AM
traditionalguy said...: That was a tall sapling. No Blue Ox awards for that one. I love it when man cleans up the mess nature makes. My wife says, "If you think this landscape job is not perfect, you should have seen it when God had it."; 4/24/11, 5:54 AM
AllenS said...: Too bad you don't have a pet beaver.; 4/24/11, 6:25 AM
rhhardin said...: Tree toppling as it's done down the road.

They'd cleared many acres of forest with only excavator underminding roots and then pushing over, but this tree is so near a wire that they tried an alternate, safer technique using chainsaw.; 4/24/11, 6:42 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Notice Meade says "Control!" There was a telephone line next to the tree, and he's trying to get the tree to go down in a particular place.

As for which sides to cut... he was making cuts on both sides. (Not all shown in the video.)

As for that premium service... you don't know the half of it.; 4/24/11, 7:02 AM
Instugator said...: hrumph, I could have cut that tree down in 5 seconds with my chainsaw...; 4/24/11, 7:07 AM
Meade said...: rh, they could have underminded their own busidness.; 4/24/11, 7:35 AM
Meade said...: Instugator, you know I love you, man. (You old rightwinger, you.)

And, of course, leave it to AllenS to bring the topic of sex into the discussion.; 4/24/11, 7:39 AM
AllenS said...: A man could have a lot of fun with a pet beaver.; 4/24/11, 7:42 AM
Meade said...: Damn right.; 4/24/11, 7:46 AM
rhhardin said...: Now that I think about it, the wire itself may not have been the problem, but there might be underground cables alongside the road that the roots would damage if they used the usual method of root messing and shoving.

They seem to have been pretty accurate with that method elsewhere.; 4/24/11, 7:47 AM
Curious George said...: People googling "pet" and "beaver" are going to be disappointed.; 4/24/11, 7:56 AM
dbp said...: If you don't have a chainsaw then it can be done with an axe and saw. Cut a notch in the side of the tree you want to have the tree fall. Then use the saw to make a cut on the opposite side. If the tree doesn't fall on its own, put a wedge in the cut and sledge-hammer it in.; 4/24/11, 8:02 AM
rhhardin said...: Trees give us the wood from which we make the axe handles to fell them.; 4/24/11, 8:08 AM
virgil xenophon said...: Trees give you "wood" rhhardin? :); 4/24/11, 9:00 AM
Toad Trend said...: What I notice most about the video is not Larry's tree-felling but the different 'dialect' of the cardinal(s) heard in the background.

It amazes me the differences of birdcalls depending on the region of the country you are in.

Of course Ann has to chime in about the possible (il)legality of cutting down a tree, in your own yard no less.

Applying the 'well, I am satisfied' clause Ann brandished regarding Zero's eligibility irrespective of the law will take care of any legal questions...

And no, Meade, I would not have used a chainsaw on such a small tree, that would be akin to killing a mosquito with a shotgun.

wv - insayane; 4/24/11, 9:15 AM
Big Mike said...: @Meade, you really should read this article. (I agree with what the writer says about the Hudson's Bay axe, BTW. My favorite too.)

Around here I'd have to get written permission from my homeowner's association to take down a tree, and I'd have to present a plan for replacing it. (Did I ever mention how much I hate the sort of busy-body liberal who thinks it's right and proper to stick his or her nose into every decision I make?)

Anyway, all you've done so far is the easy part. Now comes grubbing out the stumps.; 4/24/11, 9:28 AM
Anna said...: Did you have the proper permits?
Did you have an environmental impact study done?
Was the zoning board notified?
Were all EPA and OSHA regulations followed?

After all this is Madison, WI.; 4/24/11, 10:37 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Of course Ann has to chime in about the possible (il)legality of cutting down a tree, in your own yard no less"

No, it's Meade who brings up the subject. When he sees that I'm video-ing, he predicts people will say he's out of compliance with OSHA. I'm just responding to him.; 4/24/11, 10:43 AM
chickelit said...: Anyway, all you've done so far is the easy part. Now comes grubbing out the stumps.

I recommend saltpeter for taking out stumps. It kills wood in more ways than one.

wv = "vingra" Such acerbic wit...; 4/24/11, 1:29 PM
Sal said...: Initially it looks like a clandestine firewood theft from the Arboretum.; 4/24/11, 5:55 PM
Gerry from Valpo said...: I am so relieved that nobody got hurt in the making of this film.; 4/24/11, 7:17 PM