Tree Climbing

Should I have a post of the New Year's resolutions or revelations or "rememberings"? It may be all of those in that I'm going through photos that I took during the last year and didn't get around to sorting. Many were saved for future blog posts which never made it here. So this is one of those. My brother had a tree that needed to be removed. It was a beautiful oak tree that he hadn't planted but had sprouted near his driveway. Now, many years later it was lifting the driveway and the sidewalk. My son does this kind of work when he's not at his regular Forest Service job. This is a link to the Lakewood Tree Service Facebook page.

DSC_8466                Work was already underway when I got there.

DSC_8478                                                            When a tree is this close to a house you don't just make a cut at the bottom and fell the tree. You start at the top. You also don't just let the branches drop any which way.

DSC_8477                                                             There ares a lot of ropes and gear involved.

DSC_8511                                                     Ground crew is important.

DSC_8602                                                         Some of the ropes keep the tree climber safe and others are for controlling the parts of the tree as they are cut.

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DSC_8626                                                            This tree was taken down in many separate pieces.

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DSC_8666               Each cut is carefully planned and ropes are placed so that the branches fall safely.

DSC_8684                                                           That red rope is tied so that the chunk of wood will be caught on the pulley...

DSC_8687                                                            ...and lowered to the ground slowly.DSC_8694

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DSC_8711                  Cutting the next piece of wood.

DSC_8735                    Spikes on the boots.

DSC_8742                                                            Like I said before, there is a lot of gear.

DSC_8745                   At this point Matt decided that he could take the rest of the tree down from a cut at the bottom.

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DSC_8762                     It was sad to lose that big tree, but fascinating to watch the process.