an hour and a half, two hours max if I needed a fillup on the saw. (which means I'm stopped and hey, I'm having a smoke!)
brush is small, tophandle saw and cut and throw the brush. butthitch the wood down in 5 foot sections, cut and hand the stuff lower than 7 feet. speedline? nahh, by the time you get it set up or a rope in another tree, I'll have the brush off and be at least 1/3 down with the wood. not to mention swinging wood out and into another pine is about the same as doing a sidetrim on the pine you rope out of.
I agree about the point of leaving the tree, but if a homeowner wants it down, the tree is going to come down. you might as well get paid to do it.
to the thread starter, a few of us have remarked on how simple this tree really is, BUT, we do this every day for a living. you want to learn and make money? sub it out and run the ropes on the ground. problem solved. tree down, homeowner= happy, you learned and got paid=happy, sub climber got paid=happy. win/win/win situation. now if you could back a dump up to the railing and throw in the blocks as they come down, even better. snow covers some of what I would need to see before I did that.
PS, rotate your pics before posting them here please. I finally ended up turning the laptop on its side. and smaller pics wouldn't hurt either. 1-1.5MB pics sux..
-Ralph
