Up a tree

Some days are more interesting than others.

Bent(click pics to enlarge)
A maple tree with two trunks nearly two feet across at the base (the 18″ bar on the chainsaw almost didn’t make it across where I felled them, well off the ground) needed to be removed. Mess aside, they were somewhat near the corner of the house, and leaning further over it every year. It was time.

I got out my spurs and climbing harness, ladder, ropes, axe, machete, chainsaw, etc., and looked it over. The trunk was split at the base, and there were forks and intertwining things high up. Looked a little ugly, but nothing I needed to call professional help for. Went up, took off one major fork, and only squished some scrawny stuff and some of an overgrown hedge. And the English oak I had planted not long after we bought the place, but it’ll all grow back unless I kill it some more.

LumberjackUpATree

I survived it too. Then I took down the other fork on the same tree, and it came off without a hitch, falling the other way onto the lawn. I dropped the main trunk next, and things looked great with it on the lawn next to the “topped” piece.

Looking at the other trunk, it looked like anything I tried to drop from the higher canopy would drop on ME from anyplace I could cut it from, except for the stuff that would tip over and land on the house. Bummer. The whole thing was leaning somewhat toward the house, actually, with all the branch growth on that side. I decided to tie a long spring-line from about twenty-five feet up to the base of another tree, and have my neighbor hang on it when the time was right, to deflect it the right direction. Hopefully, it would fall diagonally across the side-yard, and miss the fence if I cut it  a little high. Worked like charm… almost. It swung well away from the house, but it was a TALL tree, and some of the higher forking canopy stuff came down across the backyard fence. WHUMP! Hence, the picture of the post and top-rail of said fence at the beginning. Oh, and the wife’s climbing hydrangea that was living on the fence got, uh, er, pruned back a bit. Other than the fence, no serious damage. I’m a bit tired, but still healthy. The house made it through fine. The kids have the opportunity to whack on stuff with the machete and axe a bit. All in all, a good day.

Timber

Now I just have to saw it up, split it, run a ship-load through the chipper, saw up, dig out and burn the stump (or else use stump remover… rats, can’t use the high-velocity kind that close to the house, have to use potassium nitrate) and rake up all the leafy crud that came down with it, and I’m done… except for the landscaping I need to do in that corner of things, now that there isn’t a maple there.

Oh, and I also start a part-time gig today, and got a call inviting me in for an interview on Thursday for a different part time job that would likely start next Monday. So I have to pretty much finish all the tree-related things by then. Oh, joy.

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4 thoughts on “Up a tree

    • Yeah, it’s a pile, all right. And I assume you meant “on NOT squishing”; of course, that depends on how important you think the hydrangea is.

  1. NO, NO, NO!!!

    You NEED to finish “The Stars Came Back”.

    Congrats on the gig, and and good luck with the interview.

    • It’s in editing with a real editor now. Making progress. Also working on the next book. I think I might have to work out a real schedule, if I’m going to have three jobs, two of which are actually scheduled kind of regularly. The wife also starts a new job tomorrow. Life happens… some times faster than other times.

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