Tree Removal 101

My family (of cars) has expanded to the point that I have to make more room at my house.  I have a back yard behind the garage that was nothing more than a big weed garden so I decided to turn it into parking area for a couple of the vehicles.  That meant tapping through the carport, which I purposely built so that the back could be removed to create a drive-through.  Now I just needed to clear out a few trees to make it accessible.

So I rented a cherry-picker (top right picture) from Home Depot so we could trim the tree around the cable wires safely.  $140 for 4 hours ($12 for insurance in case a branch fell on it and broke something.)   The job went pretty easily, if not a lot slower than we had expected.  We did all the trimming we needed to in the 4 hours, but only got about 1/2 the ground area cleared.  So we get to do Tree Removal 102 tomorrow.

The boom went up pretty high.  Before we brought it back I took it up about 2/3 of it’s maximum height, that was all I could handle, to get some pictures. I was above the tops of the power poles, and could see quite a way around the neighborhood.   The couple who live right behind me were doing yard work and made a few jokes about dropping in for a beer.

After we returned the cherry-picker, it was time to start pulling out the trees.  This was done with a cable wrapped around the tree, hooked to a chain which was hooked to the bumper hitch of my brothers big Ford truck.  He put it into 4 wheel drive and just pulled them out.  The biggest tree was easy to pull out, I think that’s because it was kind of sick and probably should have been removed a while ago – it had a lot of dead wood in it.  One of the weed trees just didn’t want to come out.  It took a little bit of work, on the part of the truck, but we finally coaxed it into giving up it’s spot.  Now we get to finish the project tomorrow or next week.

When we picked up the cherry picker, I met my little brother at the Home Depot.  I had to pay for it, and he towed it behind the truck, so we met there.  We had it all hooked up and paid for and I told him that I’d just leave my car at Home Depot and I’d pick it up when we dropped the cherry picker off.  Fast forward to 1:00, when it was due and we are in serious need of lunch.  We drop off the cherry picker, head out to lunch and then back to work.  When we’re finished for the day, realizing it was going to take another day, my brother starts to ask me if it’s ok if he left his truck at my house and took my Subaru home.  Hmmm, would have been a good idea if we hadn’t forgotten to pick it up.  So, not only does he not get to leave the truck here, but still has to drive me to Home Depot to pick up my car.  Duh!

Fun day.

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