Nine trees between a power line and a house

Eight of the nine trees stood in the gap between a power line and the house. That is the whole job. There was no direction to fell them where a mistake landed in open grass.

The telephone line came down first. It ran to the house straight through the work area, and it was going to be pulled off the wall by the first top that brushed it. We asked the homeowner to drop it ahead of us if there was time and told him we would do it ourselves if there was not — either way, it was off before a saw started.

Trees one through eight came down one at a time. Most needed to be directed and rigged rather than simply felled, with the pull set to keep tops off the conductor on one side and off the roof on the other.

Tree nine sat uphill of the other eight, tight off the corner of an outbuilding. Uphill changes the fall. The ground rises to meet the tree sooner than it looks like it will, and the butt has somewhere to kick. That one was directed too.

Brush and wood stayed on site. The owner wanted them, so nothing was chipped and nothing was hauled.

About five hours, start to finish.