GRCS and our new Spectra line--made for each other!!!

[rbtree]

Wow, what a day! At 7 am, I fielded a call from an old gentleman, for whom I've dumped chips over the years. He will be 79 tomorrow, and since 1958, has been working his hillside, removing some vegetation and trees, and planting better plants and trees. He has extended his work onto the water department's property...city watershed, etc. As well, primaries run along one edge. So, yesterday, he was attempting to remove a large maple, which had a lean toward the primaries. He had set some lines, using a fishing pole to throw a line up. Anyhow, the tree started to split, and sat on his saw. Somehow he managed to drive a couple splitting wedges in, and free his saw. A neighbor heard the banging and called the police.

Note the split, which visibly extended up a good 18 inches !! Also see the sloping backcut.

 

[rbtree]

The tree: see the fork at 20 feet or so. There was a depression, likely a weakness, which extended down right to his notch, and where the crack started. The crack went all the way across, at his hinge apex, but was smaller on the other side.

He had lines up in the tree, in three places, tied in some strange way, but mainly they made it harder for me to get my lines set. As well, I had to do a lot of redirecting, due to the back lean, and sprouts in the way. Lot of throw line tossing.

 

[rbtree]

Here I have the no stretch line set. I managed to get it looped around both leaders, so the pull would tend to snug them together and more or less pull evenly--he only had one leader tied.

He helped me set the GRCS...and as I was doing so, I asked him for the handle, meaning the lever for tightening the strap. He handed me the crank, which I dropped and got the bar from him. A few minutes later, after I had thrashed around a bit getting the rig strapped up, I looked for the crank handle, but it was nowhere to be found. We looked all over, in ever widening circle, through the underbrush, even checking in the numerous mountain beaver holes. No luck, amazing!!! All I could figure is I somehow accidentally kicked the crank a ways, but 15 feet away? Then the water dept guy showed up again, i asked if he had a metal detector, and he went to the shop, bringing two back. We searched for another 15 minute...still no luck. So I figure either a mad beaver grabbed it... or aliens were about!!! I went home, called a fishing supply place, they had a handle, and after getting the Chain saw winch, and some blocks, took off and got the handle--$87.

 

[rbtree]

I had set the line fairly low, wanting it to be strong. So we cranked it up, and soon the GRCS started to slip sideways a bit, as when using it for pulling, it has a 90 degrees sideways pull, unless a redirect block is set above it, which we hadn't done. So I went down and set a second line higher up, and ran it through two blocks before going through the Simpson saw powered capstan winch. With the higher pull, and 3-1 leverage, we got the tree to come off the wedges. I had a progress capture klemhiest prussick installed, but didnt trust it, so took wraps around the tree behind the capstan (had left the portawrap at home)

Then I went back to the tree, and started cutting the backcut in some more, watching closely to see if the tree moved the right way. It did, so I reduced the hinge to about 3 inches, and pounded the wedges in hard. Went back and pulled again with the Simpson winch, tied it off, then went to work with the GRCS. Now she was coming up nicely. So I handed off to the customer, and grabbed the camera. But I could see that the tree still had a good two or three feet of back lean to overcome, so i warned Gaylord to make sure the GRCS didnt start slipping again. It took him several minutes of slow cranking, but finally, over it came!!

 

[rbtree]

He is liable for criminal trespass, and may be charged. But I do hope they let him off easy..and may call the police officer tomorrow to tell him what I think. The tree did present some hazard to the pwr lines for sure, which have been taken out a few times over the years by other trees. In thirty years, the area will be well vegetated with the many western red cedar that he's planted to replace the failure prone alder and maple, many of which he's already cut, over the years.

A couple frame captures from the 25 mb video.

 

[rbtree]

Committed, I'd say, to the lay!