Originally Posted by
Blaktop
I remember almost 50 years ago (frightening that I can actually say that) I was at a prep school in NZ. We had a 150 y/o chapel with a huge tree right next to it and the roots were undermining the foundations. They got this old (he was probably in his 70s) Danish guy (called Jo Johannsen) to remove it. He turned up with a hand saw, a Clydesdale and a series of ropes and pulleys. The tree was surrounded by other trees. He made a wedge cut, then one on the other side, then looped the rope about 5 metres up. Took the Clydesdale about 100 metres away, clear of the trees, hooked the pulley system up to the horse at one end and the rope at the other. He's standing by the tree, the horse is way out in the paddock.....tells it to go (in Danish), it starts to walk, takes the tension, tells it to stop, checks it all, tells it to go.....and the tree drops through the only gap in the the other trees, misses everything it was meant to miss and the horse just wandered out into the paddock towing this huge tree clear. We were very impressed (I was 10).