Albatross

I started this post the week after we took the trees down in March.  Then I got delayed and more delayed and more delayed.  Then the weather got nice and I went outside to play. Stupid work. Stupid bills. 


We live on a hill that is on a hill.  Which great when it rains; we watch the creek rise and the waters rush past us, but bad when the water washes the stone down the driveway. Great for sled riding, but bad for sliding down the hill in the car in the snow. 

So it is a toss up. 



Trimming the trees has been a challenge.  The trees are older and overgrown.  Walt Kowalski is worried every time the wind blows.  He doesn't want a tree IN the house.  He doesn't want a tree IN the neighbor's house.  We also want a to build a garage (someday) which requires removing more trees.



We have used the bucket truck to its limits. It's just does not have a long enough reach to get to the branches that need cut.  So we had to go bigger.  Longer.  Renting a lift was the next option.  Walt Kowalski got prices on a lift that is towed behind the truck.  He had a reservation time and a plan. 


This was also timed for the season, too, and we were pushing the limits of flowers.  See, the plan was to drop the tree on the garden BEFORE the flowers came up in the spring.  The flowers are just starting to come up. We couldn't wait any longer.  (Yes, we should have done it in the fall, but the fall just got away from us and suddenly it was winter.)


We had Friday off of work.  He picked up the lift Thursday night and we spent the evening positioning and leveling the lift (thanks for the help from Chain Saw Johnny and Mr. Neighbor.) We would be ready bright and early Saturday morning. 


What we didn't plan on was rain.  Lots of rain.


Everything was muddy.  Majorily muddy.  Everytime we put a leveler down, it slid.  The lift has an internal sensor that knows when it is at a "safe level." With the wet yard, we struggled to get it level.  Patio stones, 2x8 boards, and wall stone helped. 

We finally got it level!


Up Walt Kowalski went in the basket.

Walt Kowalski stretched and extended his pole saw and his body as far as he machinery and he could go.  He cut one branch and as it fell it narrowly missed the neighbor's fence.

The pictures are deceiving.  As is the hill.  It looks like this piece of equipment should be able to move and turn and cut those branches with no problems at all. And it can, but it just wasn't long or big enough.

This is the struggle.  The next size lift would have been too big to level in the yard so it would have had to stay parked on the driveway, but because the driveway is so narrow, the levelers wouldn't have leveled properly.  AND the lift would be farther away from the tress, so we don't know if it would have worked either.  *sigh*

Then the day got worse, when tried to move the lift to another position in the yard and got it stuck in the mud. We spent several hours getting it unstuck and repositioned.  THEN Walt Kowalski was in the basket and high in the air with his saw, the controls IN the basket stopped working.  He couldn't reposition himself closer to the tree.  Luckily, there were controls on ground level that I could use to bring him back down to Earth, but I couldn't safely position him close enough to the tree to do more cutting. THEN the battery was out of power and we had to wait while it charged.

THEN we had a cut off time when we knew we had to have the equipment back to the rental facility, otherwise we would be charged for another day of use, which would be a weekend of use!

ARGH.  Nothing was going right. I was frustrated.  Walt Kowalski was frustrated.  We were frustrated separately AND together. We got the lift unstuck from the mud, hosed off and returned on time.  Bright spot:  I expressed my frustrations with the manager. He checked the usage on the lift and saw we hadn't used the machine very much and only charged us for 1/2 a day of use.  That helped.

Time to call in the Calvary:

Chain Saw Johnny and the guys. They looked and planned and looked and planned and looked and planned and drank a beer for courage. Learning from our past mistakes, we cabled the tree to the truck to guide and had an emergency cable.  We didn't pull too tight or too quickyl (mistake last time) and just encouraged the tree in a particular direction.

The goal was to drop the tree onto the garden, miss the 2 small tress on the left, and don't let it fall incorrectly onto the neighbor's house.

I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO NERVOUS ABOUT A TREE FALLING!

It went just as planned.  *sigh*

First tree down, second tree prepped.



Falling.

Falling.

Falling.

Falling.

Down.

HUGE sigh of relief.  Now I need that drink.  It went just as planned.  I was very thankful and thankful for the help from all the guys.  One of these trees was an Ash and it was dead from the Emerald Ash borer bug.  The other tree was a cherry and it was being eaten from the inside out by black carpenter ants.  Taking down these tress was necessary sooner rather than later.