Worst. Removal. EVER.

treewill

treewill

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Thought you guys might appreciate this vid I put together from a job a few weeks back. A huge Chinese Hackberry (Celtis sinensis) completely overtopped by Bouganvillia vines which had killed most of the leaders, leaving them to die, break off and settle into the vine mat.

The vines were so thick that the major consideration for cutting was making sure that the weight of the vines didn't endanger your TIP or yourself when if broke free. Crazy stuff indeed. There were rats living in the mess who thankfully vacated once the saws started.

BTW the title 'Worst Removal Ever' is kind of tongue-in-cheek. We decided when we showed up that this would be what the job was called, so we stuck to the theme of b----ing about the removal 'til it was done. You know how it is.

The music is 'Salah Ragab-Oriental Mood' off the 'Sun Ra Goes to Egypt' LP, and the second track is 'Major Lazer-Zumbi'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf6XhV5ZreM

PS- sorry for the repeated and unapologetic profanity. it happens.
 
Great commentary. Gave me some good laughs.

Oh and great job, I agree that is pretty bad.

So you are over there training...that would be pretty cool.
 
Nice work. I love all the profanity. Totally called for on that job.

Question - was it not an option to drop the whole tree? It looked like you dropped a huge part of the tree, but I guess there are other factors I couldn't see.

SZ
 
Wow I'm really glad I didn't get that job offer !!

I think it would drive me mad triing to puzzle out where to saw and where every branch is going....

I would have called in air support to bomb it down ;-)
 
hideous! and I thought Monkey Puzzle trees were difficult to remove, well done!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Could you of gotten a crane in and removed it in 1 or 2 picks?

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That's what I was thinking, but with the vines, it looks like it would have to be ONE pick... and then what?

Will, thanks you for clarifying that $hityeah is actually one word, I didn't know that until now.

-Tom
 
Yeah good luck! Your not teaching safe use of chainsaws by any chance are you?
wink.gif
 
Hey guys, glad you liked it and glad ANYTHING positive came out of that nightmare. Humor is born of suffering, no?

I would have loved it if we could have cut and dropped, but there was a row of greenhouses parallel to the driveway wall. We removed as much as we needed to (and no more) to fell it into the rectangular drop zone. My ground guy actually has a pretty good photo which I'll try to get showing the size and shape of the drop zone, which we cut the spar to fit neatly in to.

As for cranes, it would have had to be one pick. The vines were too tangled and strong. The only cranes we rent here in Hong Kong are 2.5t knucklebooms, which you saw in the vid. I'm not sure you can rent a bigger one for tree work here, and I sure as hell wouldn't trust the operator. I swear these guys wake up in the morning and think 'boy I hope I get to flip my crane today'.

Thanks for the plug Michael!. We've had an awesome time. Gave a bunch of practical demos, including a pruning demonstration for Ed Gilman's lecture, (talk about performance anxiety) and an installation of the new dyneema cobra static cable.

Actually the highlight was giving a presentation to a bunch of non-climbing arborists (mostly govt. folks) about why you need good climbers in order to get good pruning. I swear I could see lights going off as they realized 'hey, this is why our guys do sucky pruning, they can't get to where they need to be'. Few people here really understand what a climbing arborist does, and it is strangely fun to be somewhat of a role model
 
I can KIND OF relate to that tree. I did a cottonwood covered in virginia creeper...it was only 45' tall but it took me 20 mins to climb to my tip ALT style through that jungle of a canopy...with spurs on even. Was cussing under my breath...well maybe a little more audible than that. Nothing like that tree. Job well done and cool place to do treework!
 
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