Tree Trim Challenge

Remember I was looking for some mental challenge?  And remember I wasn't feeling that productive?  And that was making me feel useless and incompetent?  I found something that addressed all those requirements.  We have a tree that is now dead and it is slowly leaning more and more on the utility lines that supply the house with electricity and telecoms (which also  delivers Internet and phone).

The concern is that eventually the tree will add enough weight on the line that it will give away and cut us off.

Cutting the tree down is complicated by the fact that the cut you'd have to make in order to remove the tree without taking out the line is about 22' above the ground, out of reach of my normal ladder.

Sounded to me like the perfect excuse to break out my excellent collection of climbing gear that hasn't been used in years and years.  I can apply all those skills: knot tying, the physics of load factors and force vectors, climbing and building anchors; they're all applicable to this problem.  As an added bonus, I would actually complete a useful task and one that was stressing Renee out.

The business case was to avoid the cost associated with renting a cherry picker, although the fun factor was the secret reason for my proposed solution.  I would fashion a horizontal zip line, anchored by two large trees on the property, positioning myself above the offending tree (which was too dead and small to support my weight).  I would then raise from the ground one of two saws.  If my position was stable at the cutting location, I would raise a chain saw and start it from above the dead tree, cutting it above the location of the highest wire so it would harmlessly fall away.  If my position was more precarious, I would use a wood saw, powered by elbow grease alone.

There was only one immediate problem with the plan (although that wasn't the biggest problem by far, but we'll get to that.)  The only problem I had was that the I had the wrong kind of rope for the zip line.  The only two ropes I had were both dynamic ropes, meaning that they have properties similar to a bungee cord, stretching under load (although to a lesser degrees as a bungee cord) . The purpose of a dynamic rope is to absorb your weight gradually when you shock load it, as in when you fall off a vertical rock climb, cushioning the de-acceleration process.  However, it is entirely inappropriate for the horizontal zip line that was part of my solution, because the ropes position without load will change dramatically once loaded with my 160 lbs of body weight (picture the string on a bow and arrow as it's being drawn).

OK, now to the 800 lb gorilla in the room: this is cancer blog, about me surviving, and about the side effects of chemotherapy, like weakness and lack of energy.  Hardly the time to engage is such a seemingly risky project, risking an injury (or worse) that could delay my treatment, or so said Renee and probably anyone else I might have shared my plan with.

So, for many days the plan existed only in my head, and I took no action.  But I really couldn't let it go!  I mentally obsessed over every detail, wondering if it would actually work.  The glaring problem was the lack of static line (the opposite of the dynamic robe I had; one that wouldn't stretch), but the purchase cost of such a line would be about the same price as the cherry picker rental.  

I was also running out of time, as there was no way I could do any of this except during my second off week, which was quickly ending.  There was also no time where Renee wasn't home to fret and interrupt, nor was there much time when Renee wasn't home and I didn't have one or both of the kids to watch.

But, on Monday a window opened up!  Yes it was the Monday of chemo week, starting at 11 am.  Was I crazy to try this in a couple of hours the day I was to start chemo?  I don't need to do a survey on this blog to see what you all would say to that rhetorical question.  I know it would be a landslide something along the lines of "hell yes".

Well, I'm crazy.  Crazy like a fox.  In about an hour I rigged the whole thing up, except for a 25 foot jumar up the tree I used for Anchor A, which I had done a couple days prior.  I had to know if it would work.  Once it was done,  the line was above all the power lines but not above the heavy branch that would need to be cut.  Further, I didn't have the strength to really take enough stretch out of the rope when I connected it to Anchor B.  If I was closer to my normal, pre-chemo strength and/or had a helper, I probably could have introduced more tension to the dynamic line.

Here are some pictures.  They are a really bad and disappointing.  I apologize for their poor quality; I was using my camera phone as Renee had our good camera with her.  Unfortunately the dark photos plus the green spring leaves drown out the very narrow ropes and wires.  The power lines are all black.  The zip line is red.  The test line is pinkish at the top half and green at the bottom half (the green was the prusik knot loop I was connecting myself to in order to test it under load).  They can be seen in their full resolution here, and with captions, which does help a bit if you're really that interested.

Based on the unloaded position of the horizontal line, I could reach the offending branch with either of my saws.  Unloaded, it looked like it would work, although it wasn't ideal!  Before stringing the zip line into position, I had clipped my second dynamic line to it.  This second (vertical) line, not shown in the diagram, would allow me to raise and lower the saw, as well as rappel (abseil) from the zip line when I was done.  

But it also served as a way to safely test the stretchy line problem before leaving the ground.  I could test the "sag factor" of my body weight by attaching my self to this vertical line near the ground.  Well, it failed.  Under my body weight, the horizontal line sagged about 50% toward the ground, to about 11'.  I have a 12' ladder!  Without a static line, the plan wasn't workable, just as I originally suspected.

But did I care?  Nope.  I had a blast.  My hypothesis was tested, it could have worked, but not without an investment that I wasn't willing to make.  The result was that I was on a natural high the rest of the day, including through my first day of chemo in round 3.  I'm still smiling about it.  And I didn't get hurt, which didn't surprise me.  I climbing frequently (and built zip lines) for many years and had/have a perfect safely record.

But I itched the itch with my little project.  In a few weeks I'll be at United Rentals, happily renting a cherry picker for this job.