Log Splitter Advice

Well, Xcel came by and cleaned up some trees along the power lines this week. Lucky for me, they apparently won’t take any ‘dead’ wood they cut. So I have a crap ton of White Oak I need to split. I spent the weekend clearing the brush, chopping it up into burnable pieces, and chopping the logs into splittable size. Any know if this is common practice for Xcel? They took an elm down and removed all the crap, but left all the oak. Couple questions for you wood-splitting folks:

– The tree the cut was a really tall dead oak. It is now lopsided on the top of the tree, since they only removed the branches that overhung the power line. Do I need to worry about the tree being lopsided? There is a branch overhanging our house and I’d prefer not to have to pay to get it removed right now(really wish they would have just cut that one back a bit ).

– Anyone have experience renting a log splitter from someone on craigslist? Seems cheaper than going through a rental place.

– Anyone near White Bear Lake that has a log splitter they’d be willing to rent? I’d rather pay someone on here $50 than a random person on craigslist.

Do I need to worry about the tree being lopsided?

YES

A tree grows limbs to counter balance itself in wind. Kind of like a person walking a wire between buildings. The use those long poles to maintain balance. Tree does the same as it sways. If you take too much off on one side…..well, you understand what could happen

My dad had the bright idea to clear a bunch of limbs that “might come down on the barn”. Well, tree was too lop-sided and it came down in the next storm.

Attachments:

1. 

   Sues-pictures-039.jpg
   

Thanks Randy, sounds like I’ll have to get someone out here to take down a few more limbs from the tree. It’s too bad, hate seeing such old trees come down :(.

I would talk to a lawyer if they left a dead tree lopsided where it could damage my property and see if Xcel is liable for any damage caused by this tree falling

I worked for Mn Valley Elec.. tree trimming… that was our policy as well, except we worked with the consumer the best we could.. whether it was chipping, cutting into piles, giving awesome price for rest of takedown ect…. alot of line to run to keep the power on.. bigger transmission lines probly dont give those kind of deals… we worked with the townships.