@Sheldon Scott - I went ahead and bought the RYOBI 14" Cordless saw & extra battery, on Friday. I looks great and I plan to try it out this week. I have an 18 inch, gas, Husqvarna and this one will work well on smaller pruning. Thanks Shell, for the tip and info!
It's very light, as compared to a gas powered chainsaw. The trees, of course, are much heavier and they don't always cooperate as well as I'd like them to. I think they make one even smaller.
If i ever get the money, I might try to get one of them. It would be nice to not have the branches scraping the roof/side of the house, even though i only rent the place. Lightweight is good, so is inexpensive.
I have an EagerBeaver electric chainsaw. I happened upon it at the flea market one year at an excellent price of 27.00 it was $30 but I offered what I had left and the seller took it. I can only cut down obstructions below the power lines though. Johnny uses it a lot around the church grounds when it's needed so I'm glad that it's being used.
@Sheldon Scott - We had two twisted pines (giant Bonzi?) The one on the left had turned brown and I had a tree service remove it. ($250 / 2 hours) The one on the right, needed the lower 4 branches cut off. Today I used my new Roybi 14 inch cordless chainsaw. It had the power of a gas saw, and was much lighter and easier to start and use while working off a ladder. I really like it. It charges in under an hour, so you could get by without an extra battery ($100) but I like the idea of an extra. It is a lightweight that carries a heavyweight punch! I will use it for smaller jobs, and pruning. I really like it!
I have a larger tree that I might have to pay someone to remove. Not because I can't cut a larger tree, but because I would be afraid of it falling the wrong way and hitting the house or the fence. The tree had been damaged in a fire next door sometime before I bought the house, and I'm afraid it might fall one day. Since it leans toward the house, I imagine that's where it would go. I've cut a lot of trees in the woods and I can usually get them to fall in the direction I want them to, but sometimes they don't.
We have some majorly big trees around here too, with all the storms we have, it is amazing more of them haven't come down. I do sometimes find branches of varying sizes littering the yard and or driveway though. However, a few days ago when I was coming back form Richmond, I saw a tree, obviously uprooted from a storm, but the base of it was enormous...It must have been 50 to 75 feet in diameter. It is going to take some work to remove that thing! We need to do some tree cutting around here too, next week is supposed to be cool finally, so maybe some will get done!
I watch a lot of outdoor podcasts, like camping and bushcraft stuff, and I've noticed that when they cut down a tree, they usually cut it about four feet off the ground, and I'm curious as to the reason for that. I prefer to cut them as low to the ground as I can unless there's a reason why I would want to leave a four-foot stump. I left one intentionally in the back of my yard because there was another one along my fence line when I moved in, and I've noticed that the cats and squirrels liked it. However, when I was clearing my land up north, I must have cut at least fifty trees of various sizes, and I cut them low to the ground. The only reason I can think of is that cutting them a few feet up from the ground leaves you in a better position to get out of the way if it falls before you're ready for it. I didn't have a problem with that, although I would usually finish them off with an axe which I could swing low to the ground while remaining in a standing position. Yeah, safety is the only thing I can think of, but you're losing three or four feet of the usable wood.
Maybe is because if the tree snaps at the bottom your not in a good position to move quickly plus it can also snap back on you. I had a lumber jack explain it to me but I forgot alot of what he said.
I think they also do that if they are clearing the stumps with a dozer, as it gives a lever for the blade to push against. If they use an excavator, it doesn't matter. I have done it both ways, depending on the location. Sometimes I use the stump for a plant stand or something. Once in a while, I cut them off from a ladder to leave a convenient fencepost.
For me it’s to save my back and my knees. If there’s only one tree, I go low. If there’s more than one, I go higher. Same for my table saw, crosscut, bandsaw etc. They’re all about 32” high. And quit reminding me that I have about 10 more hackberry trees to fell when the sap drops.
Ok but that is only if your able to get up?. The man that told me this also said, he has seen some very bad things from people felling trees. Just be careful. I'm sure there is some good info on youtube about it.