treehumper
Carpal tunnel level member
- Location
- Ridgefield, NJ
This has been a long journey starting with the initial contact in Sept 2015. Keiling Tree Care was called to deal with a failed limb late on a Friday afternoon. That began our involvement with this historic tree. It's scale and grandeur was imprinted on me that day and began the push to assist the church in their management of the Basking Ridge "Holy" oak.Fast forward to today and we are now in the final stretch; the dismantling of the tree. It's a project that is both challenging and exhilarating while shrouded in a sombre air of loss.
We've been challenged by the conditions of the site and the tree itself, 1135' of steel cabling, 165' of steel rod, 3 tons of concrete, three props, lightning protection, the gravestones of the first pastors, revolutionary soldiers and other prominent citizens lay under the limbs, in some places separated by a few feet. Sitting at the center of the this town that grew up around it, access is limited to the street in front. Everything must go up and out to that point. All that and the knowledge that there could be a large crowd witnessing the work along with 2 film documentary crews and numerous media outlets.
Because of all this the planning has been taken to the smallest detail to insure that the work goes off without any unnecessary drama or incident. We've done tomographs to help determine where we can make major cuts without grinding into steel or concrete. Ground and aerial inspections to gauge which cables may be supporting loads and the best order to remove the massive limbs. Our first cut will be at 60' into a 25" diameter limb.
The heavy lifting will be with Garton's 180 Ton crane while I'll have Rick Yoos' knuckle boom acting as my TIP. Keiling TC will have a bucket truck and trailer there to handle the cable and lightning protection that is removed. Everything will be taken away by Dave Schneck to a storage site except the main trunk which will be hauled by flatbed to Pollaro Custom Furniture Inc. where the trucking company will offload it later in the week or next. There it will be processed into whatever usable pieces can be had. There have been over 2oo inquiries about the wood and obtaining some to produce everything from furniture and gunstocks, to guitars and pianos!
Here's a few pics of the process thus far....
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)))) Rick representing the kboom klan and treehumper humping. Doesn't get much better. Good job fellas
