Trim-Trim-iny around the Chim-Chim-ney
2 roof line clearance trim jobs filled up the morning -- elms, mulberries, ailanthus. Unexciting, but it pays some bills!
Afternoon job was more photogenic. 2 big split mulberries, at least one was lightning struck (had the top blown out of it last year. While waiting for a power line drop from the local electric company, we did roof clearance of the neighbor's ash tree. Climber encountered an opossum that treed itself -- dead end on a stub. Climber tried to push it with a stick, scare it with the saw. It wasn't budging, turned around and started flashing teeth and hissing. So we gave it a bon voyage (less than 8' drop to the roof).
Ate lunch, waiting for the power company. Decided to just go ahead and start on the bi-forkation split mulberry. Climbed and pieced out and began lowering stuff. Guess what the climber encountered in that tree? Another opossum! It skedaddled, but wound up waddling right back into a split in the trunk, where it hid until we began the final work on the tree. Meanwhile, line worker arrived and dropped the line for us. We told him 30 min to hook it back up -- stay for the show! So we hit both trees with a vengeance!
Okay, it was 33 minutes. He hooked back up the lines, I dropped the last spar (4' diameter), and we set about bucking up wood. Oh yes, leave the wood -- whoo hoo! Paid to make a grand old mess, and yet the customers were ecstatic! "Thank you so much, so much better than we ever could've dreamed of or hoped for!"