Final tree branch cut

Sunday I finally got the final tree branch cut from the box elder tree.   The previous tree branches I had cut took up to a day to cut.  I figured this bigger branch would take up to two days to cut.  It took longer.  I started the cut last Wednesday evening.  I cut on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and finally got the branch cut Sunday evening.  I didn't spend all day each day cutting the branch as I had to take breaks from doing so.

The branch was 33 feet high.  I used the 27-foot pole saw and stood in the bed of my pickup.  This was the highest I could go on the branch for the cut. I would have preferred to cut a little higher up as the branch was thinner higher up, and higher up from the cut the branch was still alive.  But how the branch grew, where it was located, and where I could stand made it difficult for me to cut higher up the branch.  I didn't want the cut branch to fall on me.

Standing in the bed of the pickup meant the end of the pole saw was face high.  Due to the thickness of the branch the saw blade didn't travel much when cutting.  So my arms got tired quicker.  Or my shoulder got sore.  Or my back muscles got sore.  So I had to take a lot of short breaks.  And after a longer while, a longer break.  Cutting was slow going.

Another side cut of a branch.

The view as I cut.

This photo was taken shortly before the saw blade had screwed out of the pole.  How did that happen?  I then had to put my old metal pipe pole back together.  The one I had used to pull down the previous branch after the saw blade has gotten stuck in the cut.  This time I used the old metal pole with the "hook" at the end to push out this saw blade.

After I pushed out the saw blade, and before I reattached it to the pole saw pole.

The old pole I had rebuilt.  Fortunately I pushed out the saw blade before I tried to pull this branch down.  That is because when I tried to pull this branch down, it wouldn't come down.  A side effect was that the cut in the branch now mostly closed.  Good thing the saw blade was not there.  I then had to re-cut the cut.  At least this time the re-cut went way quicker than the original cut.  It only took me an hour and not almost four days.  Then back to making an original cut.  After another hour or so the cut closed and trapped the saw blade.  The wind switching directions didn't help either.

This time I was able to pull the branch down.   Yay!

After I had pulled the branch down. This time I didn't bend any poles.

This time when the branch was pulled down, the saw blade remained in the cut.

Here is the small piece of the trunk that held the pole saw after I had pulled the branch down.  I cut this piece off before removing the pole saw from the cut.

There was no way the branch wouldn't fall on the patio roof.  That is why I was trying to cut the branch as high as possible in order to make the cut branch smaller.  Guess what?  The fallen branch fell onto lower branches and not on the patio roof.

One end of the fallen branch lodged in the "V" of the main trunk.  Why the branch fell back towards the main trunk is a mystery.   But it was a good thing.

Before and after photos of the branch I had cut.  The arrow points to the branch.  The next arrow points to where the branch used to be.

The left two-thirds of the photo shows the cuts I had made last Fall.  The right one-third of the photo shows the cuts I made the past few weeks.

Now to get the cut branch down from where it landed in the lower branches.  On Monday I cut the branch in half and it fell.  I had hoped the section that was stuck in the "V" would fall straight down and miss the patio roof.  Nope.  Everything fell ono the patio roof.  

In preparation for the branch fall I placed extra metal sheets on the patio roof.  You can see where the branch had fallen. 

Sometimes this was how things looked like to me when branches fall and I quickly moved.

The large part of the cut branch.  Amazing this little part of the branch held the branch up until I pulled on the branch with the pole.

This is how I had cut the fallen branch in the lower branch in half.  As you can see this is the dead part of the branch.

When the branch was up there high, I thought this was the remnants of a bird nest.  Nope.  This was some sort of branch deformity. 

The fallen branch.  Now to chainsaw the branch into pieces.   Guess what?  A new problem.  The chainsaw wouldn't start.  I then cut the two smaller branches using a handsaw.  Tuesday morning I tried the chainsaw again.  First I cleaned the spark plug even though it wasn't all that dirty.  After some effort I got the chainsaw started.  I didn't let the chainsaw idle as it seemed that if I did the chainsaw would stop.  I then cut up the branch.