From: egreen@east.sun.com (Ed Green - Pixel Cruncher)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Tree Climbing: SUMMARY
Date: 12 Oct 92 14:12:18 GMT
Reply-To: egreen@east.sun.com
Organization: Sun Microsystems, RTP, NC
NNTP-Posting-Host: laser.east.sun.com

First, many thanks to all of you who posted and e-mailed ideas,
suggestions, and warnings.

For all those of you who pay >$600 for tree removal:  you live in far
too expensive an area!

Review:  I had a tall dead pine uncomfortably close to my house, and
the tree dude wanted over three times what he would charge for a
"normal" pine removal (and that didn't include hauling it off!).

Several people suggested hunters' stands.  I decided to try that if my
first idea didn't work.  Since it did, I never look into them.

Another person suggested some type of spike that is screwed into the
trunk of the tree, that becomes a step.  That started me thinking, and
I realized I didn't need foot spikes after all.

I bought a 2x4 and a box of 16D (3 inch) nails.  I cut the 2x4 into
blocks about 4" - 6" long, and cut each of these on the diagonal.  I
nailed these against the tree (long edge to the tree, short edge on
top, diagonal facing out and sloping down into the tree), about 1/3 up
the diagonal, so I was nailing into ~1" of step, and 2" of tree.  I
then toe-nailed the top of the step into the tree.  I checked that I
was nailing into solid wood, if it had been rotten I wouldn't have
trusted the steps to hold.  I made a strap out of nylon webbing from
backpacks and tie-down straps to run around my waist and around the
trunk of the tree.  I filled a napsack with pre-nailed steps, nails,
and a hammer, and worked my way up the tree, nailing in steps as I
went.  The steps were about shoulder width apart, with roughly 1'
vertical spacing.  Oh, yes, I went up the side of the tree that I
wanted it to fall towards, so that if it did come crashing down because
of me, my widow would still have the house intact.  :^)

I worked slowly, "feeling" the tree as I went.  I jerked it
occasionally and noted the degree of swaying I induced, checked for
solid wood, listened for it creaking, etc.  It was dead, but not
rotted.

At about 45', I reached as high as I could and tied off a rope.  I
backed down to about 35', and nailed in four steps close together, and
perpendicular to the direction I wanted the top to fall.  I double or
triple toe-nailed these steps in.

I went back down, took a lunch break, discussed the plan with my
helper, then tied on a chainsaw and shimmied back up.  I tied the chain
saw off to the tree (yes, below where I cut), notched the tree,
signaled my helper to start pulling the rope, and cut the opposite
side.  As the top 15' - 20' started to fall, I killed and dropped the
saw, squatted down, wrapped both arms around that tree, and hugged it
for dear life!

What remained was short enough to fell in a safe direction, below the
branches of neighboring trees that I feared would have pushed it over
into the house.  If it hadn't have been, I could have dropped down and
cut the next 15' out the same way.

Total cost: $3.50

---
Ed Green, former Ninjaite |I was drinking last night with a biker,
  Ed.Green@East.Sun.COM   |and I showed him a picture of you.  I said,
DoD #0111  (919)460-8302  |"Go on, get to know her, you'll like her!"
 (The Grateful Dead) -->  |It seemed like the least I could do...
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house