Instead of copying a large tar file over ssh then extracting, take care of the whole process with one command:

PUSH METHOD:

cat  tarfile | ssh –C user@remotehost “(cd targetdirectory && tar –xf -)”

This will stream the tarfile over a compressed ssl tunnel and the other side will only extract if the target directory exists. The “cd targetdirectory” piece I used as a good prevention to blowing files all over an undesired/unexpected location.

PULL METHOD:

ssh -C user@remotehost”cd sourcedirectory; tar -cvf – dir_or_file” > outputfile

This is the opposite method, obviously.  Please note, the output of the SSH needs to be redirected to an output file.