"V" tree break

This morning the "V" tree south of the house had one side lean down to the ground.  I discovered the tree trunk on this side had a large tear in it.  I spent much of the day cutting it down with a chainsaw.

How the tree on the left looked this Winter before the tear.

Leaning down.

The tear.

Because of the fence I had to cut the tree trunk down in sections.  For this cut I had the ladder on the other side of the fence.  Because of the trunk's thickness I cut the trunk from both sides.  I wasn't sure if the tree would fall to the right or left.  I had Tammy watch to warn me as it can be hard to see when one is close to the trunk and holding a chainsaw.

I was on the left when the tree came down.  To the left.  What saved me was this is where the trunk ended up on the ground.  When the trunk fell I jumped off the ladder and tossed the chainsaw away as I jumped.  Since the trunk's end did not fall further I avoided getting hurt.

When cutting the remaining part of the trunk I had Tammy pull the tree trunk's end with a rope.  I was concerned the very end may fall on the fence.  The problem I encountered is that the trunk had a rotten piece in it and I didn't know it.  I again had to cut one side of the trunk then the other. The rotted section was among the last I cut. I thought I had more trunk to cut when I cut through the end of the good trunk and reached the rotted part.  The tree trunk fell quickly, towards me and on my ladder.  Again I had to jump off the ladder tossing my running chainsaw as I jumped.  No damage to me or the chainsaw.  The ladder is toast.  Here is how the ladder looked after I straightened it quite a bit.

See the rotted section?

Daisy performed a "cat scan" of the bad tree trunk.  Daisy does not like loud noises and hung back while Tammy and I worked on the tree.  Once I turned the chainsaw off she came and inspected my work.

Even with all my efforts to avoid the fence, part of the tree came down on the fence as I cut the rest of it up.  Fortunately the fence did not break.

Tonight the trunk is all cut up.  The tree sap was only starting to rise.  A few branches leaked sap after I cut them.  Otherwise the cutting went better than if the sap had risen.  The work would have went faster if the chainsaw chain was sharper.

Tomorrow if it doesn't rain I will cut up the huge pile of branches and haul them off for later burning on a tree stump.