DIY Life

I witnessed firsthand how a tree felling can go awry. The tree in question belonged to my neighbor, and her friend accidentally felled it right into my yard! What a mess. The tree crashed into the branches of a favorite oak tree of mine and broke a few planks out of the fence. I'd stop short of calling the botched felling a disaster because, thankfully, no one was hurt. That, in itself, was incredibly lucky since the guy wielding the chainsaw showed no awareness of basic safety precautions: he had no safety gloves, no safety boots and no helmet. In addition, someone's little girl frolicked all around the yard the entire time, blissfully unaware of the danger. I could go on but, well, you get the picture. My strongly-worded advice to them was: next time, hire an expert!

Think you're up to the task of felling a tree yourself? It takes a bit of forward planning to make sure you avoid the type of scenario I've just described. Start with a look at safety guidelines courtesy of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, aka OSHA. Using a chainsaw? Click here to read some good general use and safety tips for chainsaws. One top resource is ExpertVillage's Tools Needed to Fell a Tree. This feature is a bit of a goldmine for the DIY-tree-feller. It boasts 15 short videos of the host demonstrating proper tools and techniques for tree felling in safety. Each video is accompanied by a helpful written transcript so you can check back and make sure you're on track.

All-in-all, there's a ton of helpful info available on the Web. Having said that, tree felling is one DIY job you should pass over to the experts if you're at all unsure you can do the job safely. Trust me: your neighbors will love you for it!