- Location
- Chattanooga
Strengths of limbs and TIPs are just two of my weaknesses about tree climbing. Of course, I'm just a babe compared to you guys, and I probably overdo limbs and TIPs, meaning they have to be big and I have to be tied in near the crotch, but...
Last weekend, I was taking out some limbs in a tree at my mother-in-law's house. The tree was near the road, and hence power lines, so a crew had come through and pretty severely cut the side of the tree the power lines are near. It unbalanced the tree, and it now has some lean to it, but it also had some long limbs over the house and she wanted the tree unweighted on that side so off I go to Knoxville for the weekend to work on the tree.
The tree was nothing like I remembered. I remembered it was a Maple, and of course it still was, but it was bigger, the limbs were longer, but at the same time I felt like they were too small to bear my weight. They were pretty big at the trunk, I'd say as much as a foot in diameter, but they branched out into smaller, loooong limbs pretty quickly.
There was a phone line under the limbs and the limbs were way over the front of the house as well. There were two more phone lines about 10 feet from the one on out toward the side road (corner house), so everything had to be rigged out.
My last limb was gonna be the hardest one. I’d been in high heat and humidity a good 4 hours at that point; I am not acclimated to that, not accustomed to that much prolonged work in the heat, and I was TIRED, but I proceeded.
I got a line over a branch above the target limb but because of the nature of the limbs I couldn't get the line tied to the target limb where it needed to be. The ‘control’ limb was not large, but not small, but the only place I could get a positively set a control/support line was over a small limb on that limb. I suppose the ‘crotch’ limb was about 3” in diameter at most and at about a 15° angle with respect to the ground. I’ll measure it this weekend – I gotta go back.
I checked this connection from the ground to see if it would support my weight - more to see if it would hold the limb I was about to cut. When I got in the tree, the only way I could see to get the line tied to the target limb was to climb way out on the control line to the control line crotch point and actually tie the line to the limb. Remember, I am very tired at this point, so the easy way out is looking pretty good.
I left my DdRT setting on the main trunk, more as a psychological assurance more than a reality. I set up a RADS on the control line and pulled myself, quite easily I should add, way out the limb to the TIP. When I got there, I was slightly above my DdRT TIP and probably 30 feet out. If the limb failed, I might have been swung violently back into the trunk – simply falling would have probably been less injurious than slamming into the trunk.
I did have the control line ground anchored and it was routed down the limb which kept the up rope in line with the limb and pulled sharply into the crotch. If the TIP completely blew the line would slide down the limb providing quite a bit of support and resistance, and might even catch – at least that’s what I told myself.
Anyway, I got the limb tied off, removed my Kong Futura hand ascender and pulled the lever on the Rig to get the heck down from there. The removal went as planned, well one part of the limb got on a phone line but only lightly and we rigged it off.
When it was all over, no one had a scratch on them, well that’s not exactly accurate, I had a couple of pretty good shin skins. But nothing was damaged in anyway, and actually the tree looks better and there’s some nice room now between the tree and the front porch metal awning, but it still gives the same amount of shade on the porch that it did before the work.
My lessons learned – some due to the close proximity of tel lines, house and porch to the tree, and mostly because I’m a babe compared to you guys:
Study the removal carefully I get an ‘A’ on that.
Have a carefully thought out game plan. ‘A’ on that
Rig thoughtfully; consider things that could go wrong. ‘B+’ on that – in spite of best efforts, we did make light contact with a phone line but not in a fall mode and never enough to damage anything.
Inform the ground crew exactly how each removal has to come down and what their role is and when and how to do their part. Mmmm, B on that. I could have done a little bit better, I underestimated the ‘horsepower’ requirement once.
Communicate – I dropped a good sized limb, probably 12” diameter about 6’ long and unknown to me, one of my rigging lines, attached to my saddle, dropped to the ground while I was cutting. The limb fell; I looked down, braced for the shock that never came. When I got down, the ground folks informed me what happened. I said, “I know; couldn’t one of you yelled a warning to me?” I’m gonna have to say a ‘C’ on that. Apparently just saying once, “We need to watch out for each other and if we see anything unsafe, yell out.”
Don’t take risks you wouldn’t normally simply because you’re tired and this is the last limb. ’C‘ Although, in all fairness, I still don’t see another way of reaching the limb to tie it off, but I could have supported the limb with the control line better by routing it above the limb, back to the trunk, over a re-direct, then to the ground.
Goals:
Figure out some way to assess strengths of tree tops, limbs and TIPs better.
I'll think of some more.
After about two days (about 5 hours per day – about all I could do in temps above 90° and high humidity – not that being 64-1/2 years old has anything to do with it – LOL), I didn’t even get sore. Just a bit stiff, but that’s gone now too. Looking forward to more this weekend.
Last weekend, I was taking out some limbs in a tree at my mother-in-law's house. The tree was near the road, and hence power lines, so a crew had come through and pretty severely cut the side of the tree the power lines are near. It unbalanced the tree, and it now has some lean to it, but it also had some long limbs over the house and she wanted the tree unweighted on that side so off I go to Knoxville for the weekend to work on the tree.
The tree was nothing like I remembered. I remembered it was a Maple, and of course it still was, but it was bigger, the limbs were longer, but at the same time I felt like they were too small to bear my weight. They were pretty big at the trunk, I'd say as much as a foot in diameter, but they branched out into smaller, loooong limbs pretty quickly.
There was a phone line under the limbs and the limbs were way over the front of the house as well. There were two more phone lines about 10 feet from the one on out toward the side road (corner house), so everything had to be rigged out.
My last limb was gonna be the hardest one. I’d been in high heat and humidity a good 4 hours at that point; I am not acclimated to that, not accustomed to that much prolonged work in the heat, and I was TIRED, but I proceeded.
I got a line over a branch above the target limb but because of the nature of the limbs I couldn't get the line tied to the target limb where it needed to be. The ‘control’ limb was not large, but not small, but the only place I could get a positively set a control/support line was over a small limb on that limb. I suppose the ‘crotch’ limb was about 3” in diameter at most and at about a 15° angle with respect to the ground. I’ll measure it this weekend – I gotta go back.
I checked this connection from the ground to see if it would support my weight - more to see if it would hold the limb I was about to cut. When I got in the tree, the only way I could see to get the line tied to the target limb was to climb way out on the control line to the control line crotch point and actually tie the line to the limb. Remember, I am very tired at this point, so the easy way out is looking pretty good.
I left my DdRT setting on the main trunk, more as a psychological assurance more than a reality. I set up a RADS on the control line and pulled myself, quite easily I should add, way out the limb to the TIP. When I got there, I was slightly above my DdRT TIP and probably 30 feet out. If the limb failed, I might have been swung violently back into the trunk – simply falling would have probably been less injurious than slamming into the trunk.
I did have the control line ground anchored and it was routed down the limb which kept the up rope in line with the limb and pulled sharply into the crotch. If the TIP completely blew the line would slide down the limb providing quite a bit of support and resistance, and might even catch – at least that’s what I told myself.
Anyway, I got the limb tied off, removed my Kong Futura hand ascender and pulled the lever on the Rig to get the heck down from there. The removal went as planned, well one part of the limb got on a phone line but only lightly and we rigged it off.
When it was all over, no one had a scratch on them, well that’s not exactly accurate, I had a couple of pretty good shin skins. But nothing was damaged in anyway, and actually the tree looks better and there’s some nice room now between the tree and the front porch metal awning, but it still gives the same amount of shade on the porch that it did before the work.
My lessons learned – some due to the close proximity of tel lines, house and porch to the tree, and mostly because I’m a babe compared to you guys:
Study the removal carefully I get an ‘A’ on that.
Have a carefully thought out game plan. ‘A’ on that
Rig thoughtfully; consider things that could go wrong. ‘B+’ on that – in spite of best efforts, we did make light contact with a phone line but not in a fall mode and never enough to damage anything.
Inform the ground crew exactly how each removal has to come down and what their role is and when and how to do their part. Mmmm, B on that. I could have done a little bit better, I underestimated the ‘horsepower’ requirement once.
Communicate – I dropped a good sized limb, probably 12” diameter about 6’ long and unknown to me, one of my rigging lines, attached to my saddle, dropped to the ground while I was cutting. The limb fell; I looked down, braced for the shock that never came. When I got down, the ground folks informed me what happened. I said, “I know; couldn’t one of you yelled a warning to me?” I’m gonna have to say a ‘C’ on that. Apparently just saying once, “We need to watch out for each other and if we see anything unsafe, yell out.”
Don’t take risks you wouldn’t normally simply because you’re tired and this is the last limb. ’C‘ Although, in all fairness, I still don’t see another way of reaching the limb to tie it off, but I could have supported the limb with the control line better by routing it above the limb, back to the trunk, over a re-direct, then to the ground.
Goals:
Figure out some way to assess strengths of tree tops, limbs and TIPs better.
I'll think of some more.
After about two days (about 5 hours per day – about all I could do in temps above 90° and high humidity – not that being 64-1/2 years old has anything to do with it – LOL), I didn’t even get sore. Just a bit stiff, but that’s gone now too. Looking forward to more this weekend.
