Posts Tagged ‘tree trimming’
Project Begins
I’m home from work today to guide tree trimming work on our property. It has been over a year since we wanted this to happen, so we are very pleased the project will finally be getting underway. On my drive home yesterday, I received a call from the arborist who quoted the job. I wasn’t surprised to hear that they are now unwilling to bring the bucket truck due to the melted ground from the warm temperatures lately.
They don’t want to risk getting stuck in mud, which is okay with me, because I don’t want to risk having the trails significantly messed up by a heavy truck. However, I am disappointed over the implications they won’t be able to trim as many trees as I had wanted.
The bright side of that is, it will create less work for me in the realm of chipping, cutting and splitting the branches that will be on the ground when they are done.
Part of me is lamenting the time and effort I spent a month ago plowing and shoveling to make sure the routes through the woods would be wide enough for their truck.
I didn’t know at the time that it would take them this long to fit us into their schedule, or that the weather would be so summer-like that snow wasn’t a problem by the time they arrived.
Our tree guy did mention that instead of the truck, they will bring a lift that will help to a lesser degree. The less time they spend climbing is the more time they can be cutting.
I expect most of my day will be spent standing around gawking, and getting very little else of value accomplished. I want to be present at all times to guide decisions and direct priorities, so the day won’t be conducive to my digging into any other chores.
I suppose I could dabble in some wood splitting when we are back by the shed. It would certainly be a complimentary task to the professional trimming going on overhead.
Guess I should dig out my helmet in preparation for the big day. I’m pretty sure I know what tomorrow’s blog topic is going to be…
We’ll be toiling away to make our trails safe again. It’ll be a win-win project, because in addition to safety from unexpected falling limbs, the trimming will make our trees more healthy and improve their odds of surviving wind and storm damage.
It’s expensive, but I think the investment will be money well spent.
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Much Better
We enjoyed a brief visit from the sun yesterday, which made quick work of melting areas I cleared of the small amount of snow left from the most recent precipitation.
The front tire on the Grizzly held air, so the Slime patch appears to be working. After getting the driveway and barn areas plowed, I hand-shoveled to clean up nooks and corners, then parked the ATV for this photo and headed in for lunch.
Once refueled, I ventured out again to shovel off the deck before turning my attention to plowing trails to make way for the bucket truck of the tree trimmers. I wish it had been a colder day.
Our record-setting January thaw has left the ground a little soft in places and my plow blade tended to dig in to the muddy ground, peeling up large rolls of earth. There isn’t really any flat ground here, and as the angle of the ATV tilts, the result at the end of the plow blade gets exaggerated. That makes it very difficult to figure out a height setting of the blade that won’t be too high or too low.
There really is no “just right” setting. If it is not digging in a little bit on one side or the other, it is usually because it is not plowing any snow at all as a result of being too high.
Regardless, I think I’ve established a drive-able section of two, maybe three, routes down our trails to reach a majority of the big trees we are hoping to have trimmed. I will not be surprised at all if the truck looks a lot bigger than I’m imagining once it arrives and attempts to turn the corners.
At the end of the day, as promised, I got a call from the auto body shop that my Subaru repair was completed. Cyndie drove me to pick it up. It looks good as new. They even gave it that new car smell. The owner was reviewing all the work they had done and I added, “Alignment.”
“Was that on the estimate?” Uh oh.
We headed inside to check, and sure enough, I was right. He was very apologetic. Said it was completely his fault that it got missed. Oh boy. Now I need to bring it back next week and drop it off again. People!
At least it looks much, much better than when I brought it in the first time.
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Moving Snow
Yesterday’s weather was a wonderfully ideal day for moving snow. After all the abuse we have endured so far this winter, from extreme cold, terribly windy, to freezing rain, we finally came to a day with warm sunshine, perfect below freezing temperatures, and negligible winds.
That came in very handy following an appointment I had with an arborist from a tree-trimming service. We have so many trees that need attention that we had to devise a plan that would be affordable. It’s not based on the individual trees, but on a set amount of time. We are going to have a crew here for 2 days to do as much work as possible.
That puts responsibility on me to make it as easy as possible to reach my highest priority trees.
In order to get to the most trees in those brief two days, their truck with a boom and basket will be essential. I need to clear a lot of snow from trails to allow their very large truck to get where I need it to go.
Any time they would spend trying to drive their truck through snow, with a risk of getting stuck, will come at the expense of valuable minutes cutting branches.
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I started plowing around the barn with the four-wheeler, finishing with hand-shoveling, to widen access as much as possible. After that I headed onto our trails, trying to split the difference between plowing snow and just trying to maintain forward momentum.
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I made a good start down the trails, but there is a lot left to be done today. Our trees may think I’m nuts to be moving all this snow beneath them, but won’t they be surprised when the cutting crew shows up for the main event.
It’ll be time for them to shape up and drop all that dead wood they’ve been holding for years.
I’m looking forward to having branches come down when we want them to, as opposed to the possibility of falling unexpectedly when some unsuspecting soul happens to be strolling beneath.
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New Tricks
Just like when I was a little boy, I have once again been inspired by my big brother, Elliott. He taught me new skills in tree trimming while he was here to rope climb into our trees and cut hanging dead limbs. Ever since that day, I have wanted to emulate the techniques he demonstrated for tossing a line over a high limb, and for handling ropes.
On a (now-regular) shopping errand to Fleet Farm for equipment and supplies, I picked up a weight from the fishing department and several hundred feet of small gauge woven line as my new method for getting a rope over a tree branch. I can now look back and laugh at the time I tied a heavy pad lock on the large rope we had, and repeatedly threw it aloft in attempt to snag a hanging branch. It was laborious and inefficient, although ultimately exhaustively successful. My new skill has made that exercise ancient history.
I was able to use the new weighted line, and technique learned from Elliott, to get a rope around the huge limb that came down in recent winds. The heavy end of that limb made it to the ground, but it was so big that most of it remained hung up in the branches of the neighboring trees. As I cut the lower portion with the chain saw, we wanted to pull the top over, getting it out of the branches in which it was held, hopefully without causing any additional damage. It worked like a charm.
With that task accomplished, I was able to practice the braiding technique Elliott showed me, gathering the rope in a method that allows it to quickly come undone next time it is needed. For some reason I haven’t figured out yet, I’m doing something that causes the ends to be uneven. Happily, it gives me an excuse to keep practicing. I’ve discovered I really enjoy handling rope.
Since my current tree branch trimming methods primarily involve keeping my feet firmly planted on the ground, my new rope skills caused me to reconsider the high-limb rope chain saw that I previously looked upon as having questionable viability. Comically, what I didn’t recall was that I already owned one.
While searching for a container to hold my throwing rope, I spotted a short bucket on the floor in my shop that was exactly what I wanted. Inside it were a pair of worn out gloves that deserved to be thrown out, several rags, an old ratcheting pruner that has been missing, and lo and behold, a rope chain saw I had never used and forgotten I had received as a stocking-stuffer gift (I think) some years ago.
Dispelling my previous doubts, I have discovered that it works GREAT! Thanks to the new tricks Elliott showed me, I was able to get that chain over a branch that was higher than I ever imagined I could reach from the ground and cut through it with relative ease.
Look out lofty dead tree branches… here I come.
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Relative Something 