Ya'll can "hammer away" all ya want... I wouldn't have posted pictures of less-than-good technique if I didn't expect some ribbing from it. I EXPECT criticizm. How am I supposed to learn otherwise? Have at it!
Okay.... to clear a few things up.
I'm familiar with pines.... this one was just convoluted as hell, which is what made it hairy. Rich variety of targets, and the fact that it wasn't a single vertical spar, or for that matter, wasn't a somewhat "vertical" multi-leadered pine, it was actually a single barrel, leaning one direction, then at about 15 foot, there was a 16" leader coming back directly opposite the direction of lean. Just above that there was a 12" leader dangling off to the left, about a 14" angling off to the right, and then back behind, and several more all about 14" to 20" which went either up and out or up and back.
Most of these ran for more than 25 feet, and lent a bit of weight in those directions.
Was having camera trouble and didn't get the shot of it while it was standing, my fault, that picture would have been worth a thousand words.
The face was started off as a regular scarf and 90, then was undercut Humboldt style to create a VERY open face. I touched the sides, but went too far, I think. Coming in from the back is when it started to go, then stopped, actually 3 different times. Each time I'd break the saw, drop it and jump through the horizontal fence rails then scramble out from under any potential DZ landing spots. Like I said though, the face was plenty open.
I wasn't overly aggressive when cutting through on the back, being wary of a possible barber-chairing, so when I was back cutting, and it started widening up and going, I was getting out!!
All in all, yeah, the notching is kinda crappy looking. Tree landed exactly where I needed it to go, so I either got lucky, or the way I figured it worked for that one.
Sean, the Purple arrow indicates the direction of lean in the trunk, up to about 15'. Had about a 50 degree lean. The Blue arrows show the direction of *significant* amounts of weight above the lean.
If I dropped it in the direction of lean, It'd have wiped out the two fences, the power lines, another pine, and a bunch of corral.
When all was said and done the H.O. was convinced that I knew what I was doing. Guess it turned out all right, considering. I don't like guessing, but it felt somewhat educated.
Couldn't find a good position for a pull rope. Didn't have room for the truck, ground was damp and soft, fences were only lightly bolted together, etc etc.