Tree Surgeon

It's a tough job to trim the trees on our property. This tree is one of my favorites,  the closest to the house and growing next to the stairs up to the vegetable garden. We watched with interest as Albino climbed it with two guys belaying him, and cut off large branches hanging perilously close to the porch, which were  lowered to the ground with ropes and hauled off by a fourth fellow to the chipper in the driveway. Here he is being lowered back to the ground as he was too far from the trunk of the tree to rappel down.

Ropes are a tree surgeon's best friends and these were treated with the same respect any climber pays to their ropes. The saw hanging from his waist, the only tool he used for this rather precise operation is a very good Japanese precision saw. I think the tools used and the respect with which they are treated says a lot about any worker.

When I backed out of the garage to go to Pilates their truck was parked right in the middle of the driveway and the limbs they had cut off the trees in front were all over the driveway. They quickly moved everything to make way for me. 

They are a cheerful lot.

A picture of our 'temporary tree' is in extras because I liked the sky behind it. It seems to have stopped growing taller but even the tree guys were impressed by it's height.