Dead Pine Tree Takedown

It was fun. It was terrifying. It was exciting. It was a lot of wood to move up a huge hill. The dead pine of West Addison needed the professional detail of Limbwalker Tree Service, and we were there to provide it. Jordan, the man, deftly climbed an adjacent living pine to set his rope (you can see him in the first picture, way up there). He then set a lowering line in another pine tree. This line would allow us to cut the dead pine from the bottom of the tree and lower it to the ground. Jordan also set a "tag" line, which is a line you use to pull a tree in a certain direction. The direction we wanted was: away from the lake, up the hill. We put the tag line through a rope puller, and pulled like hell. I made the face cut on the dead pine and watched as Mike and Jordan pulled it over. It was insanely exciting. The dead pine got caught up in a nearby pine tree, but finally freed itself. As Mike was lowering the dead pine, it finally snapped where the rope was tied. Luckily, it was pointing in the direction that we wanted and fell to the ground. We whooped it up a little, knowing that we rule. The whole process, from rope setting to total clean-up took four hours. One tree, four hours. Not bad.

Can you see the before and after pictures? Tree in before picture, and Jordan standing over tree in after picture. Pretty sweet, eh?

HEDGES! ARGH!

So, there you have it, folks: the greatest hedge work in the history of the world. Mike, Jordan, and I worked on a massive number of hedges at a condo place called Southwind, which is about 5 minutes from where I live. We reduced the hedges by about three feet; you can see what this entailed by looking at the pictures (snip, snip, chop, chop, chip, chip). The idea behind the madness is this: privet hedges grow like wildfire (approximately 25 inches in a season). If you reduce them significantly, they grow more intensely. The hedges we were working on had never really been reduced or maintained correctly. Therefore, they were unsightly, wide, and filled with dead wood. We came to the rescue, and made sure that, come spring, these would be the greatest looking hedges in the world. I'll report back.

Oaks on Mallett's Bay!

Yesterday, Friday, we worked on three large oak trees right on Mallett's bay, here in Colchester, Vermont. Pretty sweet, eh? The goal was to "dead wood" the trees (get rid of all the dead branches in the trees), and remove any unsafe, structurally unsound limbs. Mike Lambert, in the first picture (look hard, and you will see him near the top of the middle tree), removed a fairly large limb that was split right down the middle. We lowered it with a rope and had to attached a tag line, which allowed us to pull the piece into the yard (otherwise it would have landed in a hedge).

In the second picture you can see me, in the tree to the right, and Jordan, in the other tree. I think I am setting my tie-in point, and Jordan is still climbing. The temperature at the time of the photo was approximately 0 to 4 degrees F. Meaning, it was really, really cold. However, overall, a wonderful tree to climb and a beautiful day to do it in. On Monday, we are off to trim hedges! Yippee!

The New Dude

Today, the first real work day for the newly-minted Limbwalker Tree Service. We finally found a decent human being in the form of Jordan Fletcher, who took down the above willow tree in exceptional fashion. You can also see part two of Limbwalker, Mike Lambert, being a slave and dragging brush to our monstrous chipper. Awe inspiring stuff, folks. But seriously, Jordan has the knack, something we have been lacking for the past year with all the others we have hired (Lambert being the exception). Jordan is like me in that: he has a Masters degree; he taught prior to doing tree work; and he is a furniture maker (well, I make furniture, and would never call myself a furniture maker). We differ in that he has two kids and is married. I have no kids and am getting married. Sweet.

So, for today, we went to Richmond to tear down the fairly large willow tree photographed above. There are three willows along the drive in various states of destruction. We were supposed to take down all three, but since this is a job for Mike's wife's cousin, it is free. Mike used it as a training day. Not bad. Check out the snow bank we were climbing around: at least three feet deep. When we arrived at the site, it was snowing like mad. And the temperature plummeted throughout the day, going from around 35 to 20. And tomorrow it is supposed to be 2. No typo there: 2 degrees F.

Ugh! Snow Shoveling!

March 1, 2007 is our first day of work for this season. So, what did we do? We shoveled snow out of a huge 30 by 40 yard parking lot. We keep the truck(s) and chipper(s) in this lot, so it was imperative to get rid of the three feet of snow that had collected in the lot. We used a 12-horsepower snow blower and the backs of Mike, Mike and me to remove all the snow. It only took 7 hours! Joy! And then....today, March 2, it has snowed about 4 inches. Back to the lot for more shoveling on Monday. Ugh!

California Treeing, Feburary 2007

Just returned from two weeks in the San Francisco bay area where I was lucky enough to work with Maguire Tree Care and Vital Tree Care, two tree businesses run by friends. We did a variety of work.

For the first job, we did some crown height reduction in some screen trees for a client in Woodside. This involved climbing tiny trees, coring into wood that was like 2 inches thick, and reducing the height of the trees. I forgot the name of the trees we did this in. I also climbed three small redwoods very close to power lines. Scary, but also kind of fun. The last tree I climbed held onto my ring device, and I had to reclimb the tree to get it unstuck. Drag. Then I lost the ring device on the job, supposedly (we can't find it).

The second job was working on a bunch of valley oaks in Woodside, California. Fred, Paul, and Mike (Paul's groundsman) climbed and pruned the valley oaks while I ascended a small redwood to take out a dead top. I also climbed a 25-foot black walnut and removed it. It was slightly difficult because all the trees were over a horse track, and riders came by constantly. One horse refused to calm down, and Paul and I watched for 20 minutes as the rider attempted to calm the animal (we think the chainsaws freaked the horse). I then played "rail" (a phrase we yell to tell climbers if a car is coming) for about an hour. Boring, but, hey, California sun and shine!

I then worked with Paul on removing two pines in a guy's front yard, right on Route One, right on the Pacific Ocean (picture above is from tree I was in). This was the most physically challenging work I did in California, mainly because I had to haul a huge saw (a Husky) into the tree to chunk down wood (and I am out of shape!). I also removed a VERY dead pine, which was semi-sketch. No clean-up though, and that was cool.

The last job was with Fred, and I did some of my most challenging climbing. We removed mistletoe from a 30-40 foot Modesto ash. When I first tried to access the tree, I got both throw line and rope stuck. I had to climb the tree freestyle, with minimal rope help. My tie-in was sketchy, since the tree had very tight crotches and not a lot of wood up top. In any case, I did manage to get around the entire tree from one tie-in. We removed two fairly large branches over the house, with Fred acting as ground man.

In all, I love California. The trees are magnificent, huge, diverse, green, and funky. I would love, someday, to climb one of the big redwoods (Fred recently climbed a 365-foot redwood in northern California).