This one is news to me
 

and it looks safe.

I was waiting for the tree to fall on his trailer. It's not fool proof as it still requires human hands.

There are plenty of videos with trees crushing perfectly good trucks, decks, houses, porches, etc. :eek:

With some of these accidents I know the error. Other trees split up the middle and with these I'm not so sure.

This one is pretty good
and I realize after watching it that in some cases I was just lucky.

I'm definitely afraid of Widowmakers.

Simple solution for that--just don't get married.

We have some trees along the fence line that need to be cut down. I'll talk to my neighbor about the tongue and groove system. We're trying not to destroy his fence.

On a windless day anchor a rope high up before any cuts are made. The leverage you get does wonders for trees that want to misbehave.

Almost all the tree cutting books I've read began with "In memory of. . ." :(

Yes, and since most accidents happen within 25 miles of home all you have to do is move.

And doctors kill more people than guns so ban docs and not guns.
:D

Ill keep than in mind.

I have tied off in the past, it helped quite a bit.

BTW, the notch cut is supposed to go 1/3 into the tree diameter.

After some searching on chords and circles, one way to do this for a round tree is:
measure the circumference [let's say 36"]
calculate 40% of this [.4 x36 = .2 x 72 = 14.4]
mark your tree using a tape to measure this cut line.

This 14" horiz. wraparound mark should be centered on the direction of fall.

Back the school for you boy!
36" circumference is about a 12" diameter, your notch would be about 4"

Yes, cutting using the 14" wrap-around line should give you the 4" notch depth.
it works on paper and in a few months I can try it out on a pine tree.