We had a bad storm a few days ago. We have a wide lot that our house is on, and a tree fell over sideways. It was at the edge of our lot, and it fell across it in the back yard. From the root ball to the tip of the tree, it just fits in our yard. We called a company that does tree removal in Long Island NY to get it. It was laying on its side in the yard like a crane just set it down there. It was planted just inside the fence on the one side, and the top branches were barely touching the fence across the yard where it lay.
I tried to cut it up with a little electric chainsaw I had for trimming branches. It was no match for that big tree. I got a lot of the smaller branches off, but it rolled when I cut a thicker one. That scared me as that tree weighs several tons. I could have been killed if it rolled on top of me. It would take a crane to lift it off of me. I stopped what I was doing, and I called the company that does tree removal in Long Island NY to come out and finish the job. I told them what had happened, and they told me that I was a lucky fellow. They know the damage that trees can cause when they fall, and how people can be injured or killed when they try to cut them up and haul them away.
I never realized how much weight there was in just a big branch. I would only cut thin branches when trimming that we would burn in our fire pit. A thick branch is really heavy. Plus, dry firewood is a whole lot lighter than a living branch with sap. When they cut the tree up to remove it, there was one branch on one side that was driven several feet into the ground. They cut it, and then dug around it a bit to cut it again just below the surface of the ground. The rest of it was left buried.