Several months back a good friend I went to school with called me up and said that her and her husband had a very large tree that needed removed from their yard, and asked if I would come and look at it. So I did....
Turned out to be quite a brute of a tree. A very large, mature double trunked chestnut oak. The double trunks were around 30" diameter at chest height, the main trunks were around 20' tall, one with a forward lean and the other with a backward lean. Atop each one of the trunks were (9) 45-50' tall sub-trunks. Two with heavy leans over the neighbor's service and cable lines, and two with heavy leans over the main power lines which were mere feet away from the tree.....a daunting task that normally I would walk away from, but with the experience that I've gained in proper climbing techniques and rope/cable rigging, I was up for the challenge.
The tree before it's demise......in the first picture you'll notice the heavy leans that the branches on the right have, they look small but they are actually around 16" diameter where they meet the main trunk, and span almost 40' feet off of the trunk! Second pic below is when we got started on Saturday around 11am. Started by knocking down the straight drops (ones that didn't need rigged) first.....which only amounted to 2 sub-branches......
In this set of pics you can see where we got the one heavy leaner out of the way. We rigged a cable through a high crotch and a pulley on a 5,000lb rated sling and lowered the leaner down like a crane. It's a very tricky technique as you need to be able to judge weight and center of balance on those big limbs....it went very well though...
we then rigged our cantilever trunk, it was time to drop the one main. Went perfectly. Didn't get many pics as by this point it was close to 6:00pm and we were frazzled. High heat and humidity coupled with no lunch, and we were ready to wrap it up for the day...
This morning, we got started around 9:00am. The only picture of this mornings work was this one that the homeowner's wife took.....notice me around 40'' up in the tree. I was rigging the other heavy leaner up when she got this photo. She was worried sick about us. But we've done this a time or two.....
I ran out of daylight this afternoon, was dark when I finished bucking up the trunk and I had a dead phone to boot, so no pics of the aftermath. I'll get some pics of my cache of wood tomorrow, when I go and pick it up . I have to drop two pines tomorrow morning, one is a DANDY too....covered in poison ivy!! On my way home from that job, I'll pick up my large pile of rounds.
All told, the homeowner ended up with close to a cord of wood, my partner in crime ended up with around a cord and a half, and I ended up with around a cord and a half......of that wonderful chestnut oak!!
Turned out to be quite a brute of a tree. A very large, mature double trunked chestnut oak. The double trunks were around 30" diameter at chest height, the main trunks were around 20' tall, one with a forward lean and the other with a backward lean. Atop each one of the trunks were (9) 45-50' tall sub-trunks. Two with heavy leans over the neighbor's service and cable lines, and two with heavy leans over the main power lines which were mere feet away from the tree.....a daunting task that normally I would walk away from, but with the experience that I've gained in proper climbing techniques and rope/cable rigging, I was up for the challenge.
The tree before it's demise......in the first picture you'll notice the heavy leans that the branches on the right have, they look small but they are actually around 16" diameter where they meet the main trunk, and span almost 40' feet off of the trunk! Second pic below is when we got started on Saturday around 11am. Started by knocking down the straight drops (ones that didn't need rigged) first.....which only amounted to 2 sub-branches......
In this set of pics you can see where we got the one heavy leaner out of the way. We rigged a cable through a high crotch and a pulley on a 5,000lb rated sling and lowered the leaner down like a crane. It's a very tricky technique as you need to be able to judge weight and center of balance on those big limbs....it went very well though...
we then rigged our cantilever trunk, it was time to drop the one main. Went perfectly. Didn't get many pics as by this point it was close to 6:00pm and we were frazzled. High heat and humidity coupled with no lunch, and we were ready to wrap it up for the day...
This morning, we got started around 9:00am. The only picture of this mornings work was this one that the homeowner's wife took.....notice me around 40'' up in the tree. I was rigging the other heavy leaner up when she got this photo. She was worried sick about us. But we've done this a time or two.....
I ran out of daylight this afternoon, was dark when I finished bucking up the trunk and I had a dead phone to boot, so no pics of the aftermath. I'll get some pics of my cache of wood tomorrow, when I go and pick it up . I have to drop two pines tomorrow morning, one is a DANDY too....covered in poison ivy!! On my way home from that job, I'll pick up my large pile of rounds.
All told, the homeowner ended up with close to a cord of wood, my partner in crime ended up with around a cord and a half, and I ended up with around a cord and a half......of that wonderful chestnut oak!!
Hey, work hard while you're still young. Cause you won't want to do it when you are old. 
Which, don't get me wrong, I was pizzed off about it. But they laughed at it......
Great job Scotty! I can see why you are busy, good honest work is hard to find! Stay safe out there my friend
