Douglas Fir Removal

On Dec 6 I removed a large Douglas Fir at the home of our church's Bishop. The tree was boxed in with power lines on one side. A fence a shed and some fruit trees on the other side. So I had to lower out every branch on a rope.
I had a ground crew of about ten hard working volunteers untying branches, cutting fire wood, and hauling brush. I keep them working hard, and the bishop kept them motivated with doughnuts. A ten to one ratio of Ground Crew to Arborist works out very well. All the fire wood was split and will be distributed to members of church who are in need.

There were a lot of great pictures and some video taken that day. They can be viewed at my friend Rune's site: http://picasaweb.google.com/norwayfamily/TakingDownBishopsTree#

Oh the places you'll go

In my time as an arborist I have meet some very interesting people. I mean interesting in every sense of the word. People who you want to invite over for dinner, and people who you feel weird even sharing the same Zip code with.

During my time in Logan Utah I had the opportunity to prune a large Boxelder tree for a family featured on the show Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Being a volunteer for the show gave me the opportunity to participate in filming some of the big shots for the show.

While staging for the shots, I got close to the star of the show Ty Pennington. My coworker Brandon had a camera so I jumped out of the crowd and grabbed Ty and had Brandon take a picture. Then some girls in the crowd followed my lead, and jumped into the next picture. So the first shot it looks like Ty and I are old buddies, the next picture we are both wondering who all these girls are. It was an experience to say the least, I might go into the more gruesome details at a later date. I do still have my blue Extreme Makeover Home Edition shirt and white helmet. So Ty Pennington, Thanks for the memories.

the Large Cottonwood or My next two days.

Today I started a very big tree. It is a huge Eastern Cottonwood, and I will be climbing it for the next two day. People in the neighborhood say it is only forty some years old, but this thing is a real beast. Around 100' tall, and spreading about the same. The Diameter is about 7-10' across depending on what way you are looking at it. I am enjoying my self so far, it reminds me of the big trees I climbed back in Utah. I have mostly seen the Black Cottonwood in Oregon, and those can be very big, but it is different than the Eastern Cottonwoods. Well I am just glad I will not be cleaning up after myself on this job.

Best Looking Clean up Crew Ever!!

Working close to home has its benefits, one of he best is having my family stop by and help out with clean up. Here we see Iris wearing what I call the Brandt family heirloom, this orange chainsaw helmet. I call it an heirloom because, as the story, it was given as a wedding present to my parents back in 1978 by their friend Jon VanVlack. Now I remember my father felling a few trees wearing this helmet, but not so for my mother. Not to say Jon was not thinking of her when he picked out the wedding present, maybe orange just isn't my mother's favorite color who knows. I do know I still wear the old thing quite a bit, so thank you Jon. One day I hope to pass I on to Iris.