Tree Trimming - oops

Hey! I think this is my 400th post. Wordy, aren't I?

I figured that after the intense week working on the subdivision proposal, I needed to do some simple physical work on Thursday.

Using the photo of the tree taken last Fall, here is what I trimmed.

Again the part of the tree I climbed was the left side. I climbed as high as where my feet were at the height of the top power lines that cross the photo. My head was at the height of where the tree trunk splits into branches.

First I cut the branch that goes straight up from where the branches split from the main trunk. This wasn't too hard to cut as I stood this height and easily reached with the hand saw.

The problem came when the branch fell over. I could not direct where the branch would fall. I tried to do so by how I cut the branch but my options on how to cut the branch were limited by the neighboring branch that goes up and to the right.

As the branch started to fall I tried to guide it to fall in the area between the tree and the house and also miss the power lines going to the house. I really wanted to avoid the fiberglass roof over my entryway as the branch would go right through that. I almost succeeded. The branch end hit the house roof then slid down and across the fiberglass roof over my entry way before falling onto the ground.

The fiberglass roof was ok, but one roof shingle got a hole in it from the impact. I had to get another shingle and nail it to the roof. The next morning while talking with Linda on the phone I noticed my indoor temperature weather station was laying on the floor. I guess the impact had shook it off the wall.

One branch down, the harder-to-cut branch left.

By "harder to cut" I mean the branch hardest to get to the ground without tearing my electric power lines. Yes, I mean the branch that curves to the right. The power line in question is the bottom power line in the photo. You can see it goes from the house to the garage and in the middle is attached/held up by one of the tree's branches.

From the highest point I could climb I couldn't cut too far out on the branch. I couldn't cut the branch from where it came from the tree trunk as for sure it would fall on the power line, and possibly me as I would be almost underneath it.

I used a pole saw and extended it all the way. Then I slowly sawed on the branch. I could just reach high enough to cut the branch in half. That is pretty much the dead part anyway.

Slowly I cut. With the saw completely extended it was hard to get much pressure on the branch as I cut. I would often have to rest. It took me several hours to saw through a six to eight inch branch. When I was over 2/3 the way through the branch I had to switch sides as the saw blade was getting stuck in the cut.

The wood in the branch was such that a small part of the branch would support the whole branch. I had to saw almost completely through the branch to get it to fall. The wind would occasionally blow and I noticed the branch bend and sway. In frustration I started to wiggle around where I was standing in hopes of getting the branch to snap off.

Finally the branch snapped and down it went. I had hopes that since the branch went up and partly over the right side tree trunk the branch end would catch on the other branches and either slide safely down the west (back) side of the tree trunks, or the cut end (larger end) would drop down before the rest of the branch fell to the ground and everything would miss the power line.

No such luck. The branch end caught the other branches but the whole branch quickly fell. None of the branch fell on the back side of the tree trunk. Instead it seemed to ricochet back and forth between the two main tree trunks until the branch fell on the power line. It happened real fast.

Now the power line was two electric wires wrapped around a cable. I later found this cable to be aluminum. The branch fell on the cable between the garage and where it was fastened to the tree. The cable first ripped off the garage then the wire holding the cable to the tree branch broke. Fortunately the cable got to the ground before it could be ripped off the house.

The tree branch missed my ladder. I had been concerned the ladder would be knocked over. This was the only location I could place the ladder in order to reach a point in the tree where I could climb up the tree. In case the ladder was knocked over I tied a large long rope to the point where I could no longer climb down the tree. This was I had a way to get down the tree. No one was near or out and about, so if the ladder had fallen I would have been stranded up in the tree for a long while.

I climbed down to survey the damage. I first rushed inside the house to see if I still had power to the house. I did. *whew*

There was tree branch all over. The branch was dead and the multiple impacts shattered parts of the branch. Once I cleared most of the branch away I worked on the cable and wires.

I rehung the cable and wires back to the tree's branch. Then I reattached the cable to the garage wall. The cable is now an inch or so shorter as I had to tie the cable back together.

Now the electric wires. One wire had a ceramic hourglass shaped end. The other wire had a similar ceramic end on the wire that came out of the garage wall. At least I know which wire goes to which wire. This must be a connector as each wire had what appeared to be aluminum wire that could be fit inside the ceramic hourglass.

It was a hard fit. I had to twist the wire strands together in order fit them all into the ceramic connector. However, once I did I had power to the garage. Wow! That was easier than I feared.

By the time I cleaned the yard of branches it was after 4 pm. I had been at this for 3 and 1/2 to four hours.

I was tired from sawing so I put off more cutting to another day. If you look midway on the branch you see a dead branch going straight up. I plan to cut this branch another day. As I looked the tree over after I had cleaned branches off the ground, a robin flew up and sat on the remaining dead branch, then sang at (scolded?) me. Sorry, Mr. Robbin, that branch will be cut in the future.

You know, with the "straight up" branch I had cut first now gone, there are no branches above the short concrete walkway to my entryway. That means no more bird crap on my concrete walkway to clean off. Those #&*@ birds would crap on my walkway.

That night I slept hard but with crazy dreams. Once I woke up completely covered in sweat as I dreamt I was in a cross-country ski race. Another time I had a dream where an aunt mistakenly thought I was dating a woman she knew with the same first name as a girlfriend I once had, and was mad about it. Nonsense dreams.

I woke up late and was tired and very stiff and sore all over. My arms, chest and back, hips and legs were sore. My arms naturally from sawing, and the rest of my body from supporting myself on the tree trunk as I sawed.

I was awake at 10 am after almost nine hours of sleep but still was summoning the energy to get out of bed when Linda called to learn about the Planning Board's decision on the subdivision. She asked me if she had woken me up as I sounded like it.

Good thing it rained much of the day, I needed a break.

I am already burning in my wood stove parts of the branches I cut down. You know what they say about heating with wood, first it warms you when cutting it, then again in the wood stove.