Saw blade fixed and more branches cut

Sunday, once his sabbath was over, Curtis returned the pole saw blade that he fixed.  It looks great.  He added extra metal around the metal piece that comes out of the rubber handle.  I haven't used it yet as I was in the middle of sawing a branch.

Cutting the next box elder tree branch was a hassle.  Again a high branch.  And this was a thick branch.   While waiting for my crawlspace water leak to dry I started cutting this branch.  Off-and-on between working on the leak repair.

Then yesterday I did more cutting on the branch.  But early evening my saw blade got stuck in the cut.  Due to the branch's height the cut was diagonal.  From the top and from the side.  It was pretty windy and I think the branch shifted sideways and then held on to the blade.   As you can see in the previous photo of the blade each end of the blade has a "hook".  The hooks help one not to accidentally pull the blade out of the cut when working with a long pole.   The downside is that if one wants to try to pull the blade out when it is caught, one can't.

Stuck in the branch.

What to do.  Wait for a day when the wind is from the opposite direction and hope I can work the blade out of the cut at that time?   It would be nice if I could push the branch back to open the cut and then get my blade out.  But how when the branch is up so high that to reach it with my pole saw I am standing on an extension ladder.

I thought about the problem overnight.  I have a weight and a long rope.  Maybe I could toss the rope over the branch and pull it down.  The branch has a big cut.   Nope.  I tried throwing the weight and rope over the branch but it was too high.  Standing on the ladder to get higher didn't help and it is hard to throw high when standing on a ladder.

Then I looked around. Maybe I have pole or something where I could push against the branch and open the cut up to get the saw blade out.   I found I had a number of 10-foot poles that could be added to one another.   Good thing I don't listen when Donna tells me I should clean my crap up and get rid of it.

I made a 40-foot long pole.  It is tricky to add the final 10-foot sections to the pole when the pole is upright.  I can't lift the entire 40-foot pole upright.   I then tried pushing the branch back so I could get the saw blade out of the cut.  But you can see the pole has a slight bend when pushing.  I couldn't get the blade out.

Well maybe I can come up with something where I could pull the branch down.  I found this piece of metal with a hook at the end.  I drilled holes in the pole and attached it.   Of course this made the top of the pole even heavier.   More work to get the pole upright.

Then I found I needed to fasten the pole pieces so they wouldn't come apart.  Below you can see what happens when a few pieces come apart.  And of course, part of the pole ended up balancing on lower branches and not just fall to the ground.  More effort to get all the pieces to the ground.

Then what I did was to drill holes in the pole pieces where they connect and add screws to hold them together.   Of course to connect the last two pieces with the screws when holding the pole upright was a big challenge.  Finally I got it done.

Once the pole hook was in place it was easy to break the branch off.   The middle arrow shows where this branch was located.   The right arrow is the previous branch I had cut off a few days ago.   The left arrow shows the last branch I later cut off this evening after I took this photo.   The last branch was dying above what is seen in the photo.  This last branch when well.  I paid attention that the saw blade wouldn't get stuck in this branch when cutting the branch as again due to the height the cut was a diagonal cut.  This last branch fell right where I wanted it to.

The branch I had pulled down landed on lower branches and not on my patio roof.   Somehow above and below the one branch.  The pole saw landed on the branch and did not get damaged.   The pole I created to pull the branch down did get damaged.  Here you can see one of the bends in the pole due to the weight of the branch on it.

I then had to use the pole saw to cut parts of the fallen branch to get it off the lower branches and off the patio roof.   You would think that me being so close to the branch that the saw blade wouldn't bend, but it did.  I had to do something else to get the blade out of the cut before it became a permanent bent.  I was able to save the blade.

Once I cut and got the branch out of the lower branches the end of the branch fell on my fence and broke it.  I didn't see that coming.  Another repair job to do later.

Here you can see how much I cut and what broke off.

Another look at the bent pole I used to pull the branch down.  This was the other bend in the pole (over the lower branch).  After some effort getting the pole out of the way and to not get bent any further, I was able to straighten the pole and eliminate the bends.

I should only have one branch left to trim from the tree.  Another high branch.  And it will be a challenge.