Well, at least for our neck of the woods. We don't see too many big hemlocks anymore. Lots of them are being lost to the white fungus. We did a removal of three the other day in a tight backyard, and we earned 'em.... A view from the street out front of the house shows the towering leaning giants. Long day of hard work ahead..... There's me, around 45' up one of the trees after I topped it. I also limbed all of the branches off of the side of the second tree on the way up. That second tree went a lot faster. Had to top and drop all three trees, and cut 'em into 6' sections on the way back down due to the close proximity of the house, patio, fences, etc.....I love a good challenging tree!! The smaller ones are done, stumps are out, and it's on to the big boy!!
On the last tree (the big one), the wind started kicking up. When you are swaying back and forth on a stem like that (once all the branches are off) it can make things interesting.....but I love the rush of it!!
Right Scott. That swaying is part of the fun! But that does look like it was a tough job with lots of hard work. Good job well done.
BD, those vines were BAD! It was English ivy, and TONS of it. What made it so hard was getting a good hold on your climbing gaffs, you had to rely on instinct when stepping them in. Guys who climb day in and day out know what I'm talking about there. I'm just a weekend climber, I do a lot of climbing but not so much on vine covered trees. Those vines were around 25-30' up the tree the whole way around. The big tree was around 22" diameter at 30' high, so to make it easier I used the 372XP to piece it down. That was fun!
I kept all the big stuff, I was hoping to get a couple saw logs out of it, but getting them out would have been a real PITA. The yard was a nicely cared for place, and taking them out would have done some destruction so I pieced them down to the ground. I'll be making some pumpkins and other stuff for the wife and my mom out of some of those rounds, the others I'll split up for use in the maple syrup evaporator this winter.
Nice job man!! You were way up there on a few of those. I'm not really afraid of heights but I bet that would give me some butterflys in my stomach a few times. Were you able to use the speed lines on the tops?
Certified, we didn't have the proper span to use the speed lines, which was a bummer. That would have saved a good bit of work. The job coming up this weekend, we may be able to use them there...... Trust me, when we do use them, I'll be sure to get some video.....
Really nice piece of work Scotty! I had not heard about the white fungus/hemlock issue. Is it hitting all the trees there in PA? I used to deer hunt around Brookville/Cooks forest area and thought those Hemlock/Hardwood forests were the most beautiful around. Have not been over there for about 10 years now, wonder what they look like now?
Boog, unfortunately the Eastern Hemlocks in our area are in big trouble......it's on most of them that I have seen except for a couple stands in the big woods....
