Climbing in the wind today was quite a thrill. Easy to say, but you would really have to have been there. It's amazing to experience the combination of wind & rain, while roping down a dead top of a 42" fir tree. An all-day affair, with dozens of limbs, all of which needed to be roped. The bottom half was live, and the top 40' was dead.
This situation brings everything back to the essence of a life that could end if the top breaks out with you in it. This was a city tree, open grown with a full dense crown. Limbs stuck out 30 feet, requiring us to provide for under-clearance of limbs that swung down towards the property line fence nailed to the trunk. We had dropped power lines on each side of the tree to give us a fairly clear work area, but there was still plenty of obstacles underneath the tree on the neighbors' side.
I obviously survived just fine, for the tree is on the ground & cut up. That doesn't mean I wasn't scared. Wondering how I ever got myself into this situation didn't help get it over with. That only took tieing up 3-5 branches at a time and cutting like mad to get the weight out of the tree.
The lowering line was placed about 20 feet down from the tip for the topping cut. The stripped trunk was straight and the limbs above were evenly distributed all around, but there was no question that it was going to take off in the desired direction with no hesitation whatsoever.
After placing a healthy face in 7" wood, I shut off the saw and hollered down to the rope man. "Make sure you let the rope run!". Time for the back cut. Sure enough, it took off like a rocket, and sailed well sideways across the yard. It seemed like it was running rather far, and there was no slowing jerk of braking rope. Indeed he let it run down all the way, with the tip just poking into the dirt of the garden next door. Perfect. Boy, was I glad to have that top gone. The tree immediately quit swaying in the 35 mph breeze. All my cares were over. What a relief!
After pushing a few 6 footers into the wind with no resistance problem, a pull rope was used and the length was bumped up to 8'. The sawdust was coming directly back into my eyes. Flipping the saw over, and cutting with the top of the bar helped a bit.
I sent the 020 down and starting cutting pieces with the 036, mounted with a 28" bar. It soon proved to be too short, was cutting crooked due to poor sharpening, and wouldn't bore because of anti-kickback homeowner chain. So much for easy sailing.
Two weeks ago, we had a much more powerful windstorm come thru, tearing up hundreds of trees in Seattle. Power was out for several days in a few neighborhoods.
I had a chance to climb in that 50+ mph gale, as well. Doing a few removals of carnivorous trees that morning, I wimped out and climbed down from one tree after stripping it only half way up. Only because the ground people said the adjacent trees threatened to blow down on top of me, though. We spent the rest of the majorly blustery day clearing lodged, leaning and uprooted trees without leaving the ground. Six trees hit one house we worked on. The memory of that recent windstorm was what provoked this recording of todays milder encounter.
This situation brings everything back to the essence of a life that could end if the top breaks out with you in it. This was a city tree, open grown with a full dense crown. Limbs stuck out 30 feet, requiring us to provide for under-clearance of limbs that swung down towards the property line fence nailed to the trunk. We had dropped power lines on each side of the tree to give us a fairly clear work area, but there was still plenty of obstacles underneath the tree on the neighbors' side.
I obviously survived just fine, for the tree is on the ground & cut up. That doesn't mean I wasn't scared. Wondering how I ever got myself into this situation didn't help get it over with. That only took tieing up 3-5 branches at a time and cutting like mad to get the weight out of the tree.
The lowering line was placed about 20 feet down from the tip for the topping cut. The stripped trunk was straight and the limbs above were evenly distributed all around, but there was no question that it was going to take off in the desired direction with no hesitation whatsoever.
After placing a healthy face in 7" wood, I shut off the saw and hollered down to the rope man. "Make sure you let the rope run!". Time for the back cut. Sure enough, it took off like a rocket, and sailed well sideways across the yard. It seemed like it was running rather far, and there was no slowing jerk of braking rope. Indeed he let it run down all the way, with the tip just poking into the dirt of the garden next door. Perfect. Boy, was I glad to have that top gone. The tree immediately quit swaying in the 35 mph breeze. All my cares were over. What a relief!
After pushing a few 6 footers into the wind with no resistance problem, a pull rope was used and the length was bumped up to 8'. The sawdust was coming directly back into my eyes. Flipping the saw over, and cutting with the top of the bar helped a bit.
I sent the 020 down and starting cutting pieces with the 036, mounted with a 28" bar. It soon proved to be too short, was cutting crooked due to poor sharpening, and wouldn't bore because of anti-kickback homeowner chain. So much for easy sailing.
Two weeks ago, we had a much more powerful windstorm come thru, tearing up hundreds of trees in Seattle. Power was out for several days in a few neighborhoods.
I had a chance to climb in that 50+ mph gale, as well. Doing a few removals of carnivorous trees that morning, I wimped out and climbed down from one tree after stripping it only half way up. Only because the ground people said the adjacent trees threatened to blow down on top of me, though. We spent the rest of the majorly blustery day clearing lodged, leaning and uprooted trees without leaving the ground. Six trees hit one house we worked on. The memory of that recent windstorm was what provoked this recording of todays milder encounter.
