Oak trees over the house

[barnetmill]

I just got one of them down and I am chewing it up. Dropping an oak is very dangerous when they are leaning the wrong way and still dangerous when they are on ground until they are lying flat and not propped up branches. Even on the ground as you cut them up they can roll and fall on you. This one is is not a live oak and was fortunately not huge. I used a 25 inch saw not in the picture and the tree was at least 5 inches thicker.
I used wedges and several chain hoists to pull it away from the house. When on the ground I first cut away as many of the limbs that are not caught under the tree holding it up. Then I cut the limbs that are struck in ground supporting the tree and when almost through them, I pull them away with tractor so I do not get caught when the tree falls to ground level.
The dogs once the chain saw starts generally retreat, but I called them and made them pose for a picture.
I will burn the wood for fuel this winter.

[Milky Duck]

All Im seeing is good excuse to crank up the Stihls and get stuck in....yip trees can be problomatic to fell,but thats where experience comes in...and machinery if beyond capabilities of the tree feller/fella .
we took down a silver birch about 26" through stump and a cabbage tree similar size,both I hooked chain and strop onto them as high up as could get them and had my good wife on the other end in our 4x4 just putting pressure on and giving it a pull when I yelled...no issues at all if you can get your rope high enough.that and good scarf technique and leaving enough wedgewood all work together to make it easy....watch ol billy ray on end of a saw on utube,he makes it look easy...thats years of accumilated know how at work....love him or hate him,the guy knows what he is doing and does a pretty good job of trying to share that knowledge.
enjoy the warm fire.

[barnetmill]

I used a three ton chain hoist hooked to a distant pine tree with chain. I use the wedges in case I break the chain. For security to be sure I have an additional 3/4 ton hoist that I also attached with chain. I got into the tree with a ladder and tossed the chain above me to hook over a side branch and got it high enough; easily 20 feet. Figure for just for 10 feet; 4,000 lbs of pull from a 3 ton winch time ten is 40,000 lbs and that is a lot. Just a lot of work in july florida weather for cutting a bit, and put in the wedges into the gap. Walk down to chain hoist work the handle a bit. Pull out a couple of wedges on one side cut with a smaller chainsaw. Put the wedges back in on that side and take those out on the outer side cut and put the wedges back in. Back to the chain hoist and repeat until tree is leaning away, then keep it all up until you feel the tree coming along. If the tree must drop just so I pull it all of the way down with the notch taken out in the beginning directing where it will go.
I do have a catapult for throwing a line up to the top of a 75 ft pine that I have not used yet.

[dverna]

I let oak season a minimum of two years, but I heat with it.

[barnetmill]

I let oak season a minimum of two years, but I heat with it.

I do not wait more than months and the oak often drips creosote down the chimney. The blackened area in the picture of the sawed surfaces are likely creosote. If it is live oak, you immediately want to split while still green or you will almost not be able to split it. The one in the picture is not live oak.

[barnetmill]

To stop trunk from grabbing the saw or rolling on me I did some cribbing and used a floor jack. Saw is a 25 incher that went right through the irregular 25 inch log with ease.