Tree Comes Down at Mike's Place

Tree Movements at Mike's Home

Well...I know the title "Tree Comes Down at Mike's Place" may cause alarm initially seeing as many reading this may think that a tree had blown down in a storm.

No...this was a pre-planned event.  Seeing as a neighbour of mine two houses down had a similar tree fall across his roof causing damage to his roof and attic, Lisa and I felt that it was time to remove the 75' white spruce which was planted quite close to our foundation by the previous owners of our house some 60 years ago.

My neighbour's tree actually pierced his roof with a limb penetrating into the attic...and...this was a month or so "before" the Derecho of last May long weekend, one year ago from this past weekend.

Our tree now had quite the lean to it and we figured that the heavy winds may have caused the root structure to be stressed somewhat.  The last thing we wanted to have happen was to have it blow over in a future windstorm and take out the dormers on our house or even crash into the neighbour's roof.

While we have loved this tree for the entirety of my time owning our house here on Wingate Drive in the Elmvale Acres area of Alta Vista, Lisa and I have come to the conclusion that for safety it was time to come down.  Fortunately there were no bird nests or squirrel nests in the tree so wildlife was taken into consideration.

You cannot see the angled "cant" of the tree from this perspective, but trust me...it was leaning quite far over our house.  Be it a natural tropism or not, it was causing concern for us.

To enlarge the images simply click on them.  To return to the default look of the page click outside the image.

Here the crane has arrived.

Entering my driveway.

Setting up the supports which are hydraulic driven.

Bill, the crane operator uses his remote control pack to set the supports as seen in this video.

To engage the video simply click on the white arrow once then again a second time.

Video footage from the other side.

Still more set-up video.

The ball at the end of the chain where the arborist will be tethered.

Going up on video.

(Sorry about my decision to change to change viewing angles on some of the videos.)

Continued rising on video.  

A man in the tree on video.

The wood chipper truck.

Ditto.

The telescoping crane is extended.

Shake that tree loose on video!

Riding high on video tape!

Hey, who planted a well-established tree in the middle of the street in front of my property!

Too cool!

Lifting and chipping on video.

Still more video footage.  The tree is coming down gently!

Luckily we had a blue sky day for the event.

Notice the arborist still up at the top of the now truncated tree.

The workers saw branches slowly as the crane operator moves the tree forward following their instructions.

The narrower trunk areas go directly into the wood chipper as well.

This larger section will be saved.

It is the lower section of the trunk that a neighbour had asked for.

The lower section is moved on video footage.

The workers got a huge kick out of my neighbour, Robin, who drove off in this video with a lengthy section of white spruce which will end up as a long beam for a structure on the island he owns.  

I counted some 60 rings in the tree!

The workers saved another section of the trunk.  They will cut white spruce boards with it.

The ladies check out the length of trunk Robin has carefully planned to cut at his house on the next street over.

Robin had worked with Stu Moxley, one of our early OVGRS members and he says to say hi to you Stu!

Robin has done a number of favours for Lisa and me over the years including building my carrying cases for my locomotives.

With all Robin has done for us, it's nice to "give back" in some way.

I know that Robin will make valuable use of the lumber!

Thanks for checking in on this very interesting morning at the Hamer household!

All the best, Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario ,Canada