Seven parts, and a power line dropped for the day

The power line came down first, and not by accident.

Part one was a large oak that had grown into the homeowner’s service line. Cutting live wood against a live conductor is not a risk worth taking, so the line was physically dropped for the day and stayed down until the oak was clear of it. Everything else on the property waited behind that.

The ground falling away downhill turned out to be worth two of the seven parts. A large oak below part one and a very large tulip poplar could both be put straight into the woods instead of dismantled piece by piece. The oak went in without any trimming at all. The poplar was rigged and dropped. Neither one needed a lift, and neither one needed a chipper.

The rest ran like this:

• Three hardwoods near the left-hand property line, next to the shed. Brush chipped and hauled, hardwood cut to size and left.
• A row of small Bradford pears alongside the road, taken out completely. Anything too large for the chipper stayed with the homeowner.
• A dead tree already lying on the ground, cut to size at the homeowner’s request, plus two standing dead nearby felled into the woods.

That property line by the shed was a stated constraint on part five, not an afterthought. Oak Ridge is particular about where one property stops and the next begins, the greenbelts are enforced, and a set of trees standing on a boundary is worth being certain about before a saw comes out.

The homeowner also had a real choice here: brush chipped and hauled, or brush kept. On parts one, two and five the brush went through the chipper and off the property, and the hardwood was cut to size and left behind.

Driveway accessibility sat on the hazard list alongside the power line and the house. Getting a lift, a tractor and a chip truck to seven different parts of one sloping property is a fair share of the work on a job this size.