Tree Work 2

As noted in the first post, Monday was tree removal day.  After dealing with the dead ash trees along the power line, Tim went to work on the Leaning Tower.  This "grandfather" makes clear why cutting down trees ranks so high among the country's most dangerous professions.  Trees are always full of surprises.

Tim went aloft on his 40-foot boom, but that left the bucket a good 20-25 feet below the top of the Leaning Tower's crown.  He removed that top section piece-by-piece, starting first with the healthy limb opposite the one that had broken.  Even at the start, as he removed the first sections, he said he could hear the main trunk make cracking sounds.  That told Tim that the trunk was weak and might do something unexpected.

Tim, in the bucket, starts working on the crown.

A section of the branch (lower center) heads for the ground!

Another part of the tree is about to hit the dirt!

Once this limb was out of the way, Tim went to work on the main trunk.  His approach to "surgery" was to remove the trunk by sections, working his way down to, and then past, the broken limb.  Again, large pieces were roped so that they dangled from the main trunk and could then be cut up into smaller pieces.

A leafy branch takes the plunge.

Reduced to a branchless trunk, the
Leaning Tower looks forlorn.

Tim sends a large section of trunk southward.

Then it fell to the ground crew to stack the sections Tim cut, chip the smaller debris, and rake up the driveway.  It was a very efficient process.  In about 45 minutes the tree had been cut down to size.  All that remained was to drop the last 10-12 section of trunk.  More on that next time. •••