2006-03 Tree Work

2006-03-29 This morning at 8am, Bill Pollock and the Arbor Services of CT showed up to take down two troublesome trees. The first was a medium-healthy oak that was leaning threateningly over the east part of the house and was shading out Marilyn's flower garden, The second was an ugly red maple, pieces of which had split off - it deserved to go. The poor cedar it was shading is probably doomed, but maybe now it'll have a chance at a graceful exit.

The oak was the more demanding. The pieces all had to be controlled to avoid the house and the flower garden. Fortunately, the bucket truck and the chipper could be positioned on the front lawn, and this gave pretty good access. It might have been the last day you could drive on the lawn without completely tearing it up (not that you could tell, but still...)
The light stuff could be cut off, and dropped by hand.
The bigger and higher stuff had to be rigged then belayed from the ground to protect house and flower garden. It was all pretty artful. And fast.
The photo doesn't show how tricky some of this stuff was. Here, a piece has been rigged to a point above and to the left, down to the belayer on the ground. The bucket is tucked to the right of the cut, away from the trajectory of the limb when it comes free.
After the oak's crown was removed, the crew built cribbing on the far side of garden and dropped the remaining part of the trunk onto it. Marilyn might fret and whine some about the foot prints in the soft garden ground, but when I show her the divots left by the cribbing, she's going to realize that there was potential for far worse if they hadn't done it right.

...and pile of oak chips on a 12' x 20' tarp to distribute.