Take That, Nature!
Dec. 28th, 2008 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
errantemberWhile wandering my back yard yesterday, my mother heard what could only be described as an ominous creaking noise. Upon further investigation, it was revealed that a huge branch of one of my ash juniper trees had partially broken at the crook of the tree, and was just *waiting* to come down, partly on my bedroom. The branch is about 30 feet long, and about 10 inches across at it's biggest point. I'm working on putting together the story of my co-op, so I decided to record the audio of the whole experience for use on the website. My roommate was just leaving, so I was without help for the rest of the day, and the situation was clearly dangerous enough to require immediate action.
I had a pow-wow with my roommate before he left to go to his Lakota Sweat. I got out my pole saw, hand saw, and finally broke my electric chainsaw out of the packaging where it's been sitting for 6 months. I also got several ropes to tie parts of the branch to a higher branch so they wouldn't fall uncontrolled (read "through my house".) I started with the smaller pieces that were actually over the house and most likely to either do damage themselves or to throw the bigger falling branches into the house. I got a few with the handsaw, mostly putting the house out of danger. Twice I used the ropes to suspend pieces, once in a cradle, and the other in a tarzan. I then continued with the pole saw, trying to keep the pieces as big as possible (juniper is excellent rot-resistant woods for outdoor projects.) At the climax I engaged the tree in an epic battle to saw through about 9 inches of wood with a very dull tree saw from about 10 feet away. The whole process probably took 35 or 40 minutes, with constant changes of hand position and frequent breaks. I might have been able to use the chainsaw, but I would have had to do it on a ladder from somewhere near the branch, and it seemed safer to use the pole saw from the roof. The final set of cuts with the chainsaw to take the main branch off at the fork was almost anti-climactic, but resulted in total success. I managed to take down the whole branch into about 6 pieces, by myself, with no damage to the house or my person, and now I have this great pile of juniper to use for continued outdoor permaculture design.
I had a pow-wow with my roommate before he left to go to his Lakota Sweat. I got out my pole saw, hand saw, and finally broke my electric chainsaw out of the packaging where it's been sitting for 6 months. I also got several ropes to tie parts of the branch to a higher branch so they wouldn't fall uncontrolled (read "through my house".) I started with the smaller pieces that were actually over the house and most likely to either do damage themselves or to throw the bigger falling branches into the house. I got a few with the handsaw, mostly putting the house out of danger. Twice I used the ropes to suspend pieces, once in a cradle, and the other in a tarzan. I then continued with the pole saw, trying to keep the pieces as big as possible (juniper is excellent rot-resistant woods for outdoor projects.) At the climax I engaged the tree in an epic battle to saw through about 9 inches of wood with a very dull tree saw from about 10 feet away. The whole process probably took 35 or 40 minutes, with constant changes of hand position and frequent breaks. I might have been able to use the chainsaw, but I would have had to do it on a ladder from somewhere near the branch, and it seemed safer to use the pole saw from the roof. The final set of cuts with the chainsaw to take the main branch off at the fork was almost anti-climactic, but resulted in total success. I managed to take down the whole branch into about 6 pieces, by myself, with no damage to the house or my person, and now I have this great pile of juniper to use for continued outdoor permaculture design.
