Lake Tuck Snow serves up XMAS present

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rbtree

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Thanks to Andy, we were called to remove 80 feet of a hemlock which failed onto a multi-million dollar home, from the snow load.

This is at Lake Tuck, near Duvall, where there was 2 feet of snow on the ground or more, from 6 different snow events.

The roads are barely passable, even with 4wd, even after their private gated community has been plowed twice. So, a crane was out of the question.

We arrived late today. Mike Oxman climbed the snag, set a block, and cut off a couple pieces. The line was fixed to a porta wrap. I had set a line in a well positioned cedar. Mike jugged up it, and set another block, which was set to be retrievable from the ground. Our static line was rigged, and I tied it to the 25 foot portion of the tree overhanging the deck. We tensioned it with each rope, and I cut it free. It immediately swung clear and they lowered it down neatly.
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I had accessed the roof via a 32 foot ladder, tossed my lifeline over to the tree and pulled myself to it, via a 45 degree steep section of roof. Then, I went up the main roof and tied a mid line to the tree, and threw it to the ground opposite the side we'd be attempting to lift the tree. It was tied back to keep the tree from swinging sideways too fast when we lifted it.

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Mike had been concerned that the tree on the roof might move a bit, so he had tossed me another line to tie past where we cut the overhanging section off. He'd run it around the cedar at 30 feet. Turns out the tree stayed put, so we pulled that line out and retied it closer to the top, and tossed it over the roof on the side as we'd be lifting, in case we needed to help the tree swing clear of the house. I got the static line back and tied it 25 feet from the tip, and tied the butt line back to the 30 foot snag. Then I came down, and we tried to lift the entire remaining 45-50 feet off. No luck, the line angles were too extreme, and the tree is weighted down with the snow on it, plus a branch or two could be stuck in the roof.

So, we'll go back tomorrow. There's a perfectly placed hemlock which we'll set a block in and another static line, attach that line to the tip, and remove the first static line from the tip and tie it to the butt, where it will be well placed to lift the butt up. We'll get rid of the line and block at 30 feet in the snag. And add the Hobbs to the hemlock so we can lift each line in unison. The back line will still allow us to control the sideways movement. It should hang clear of the roof and be able to be neatly lowered to the ground.

It may be raining tomorrow, but I hope to be able to be up the snag, taking pics and video of the operation. I'll get Andy to replace me while I'm filming.
 
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Nice pics as always Roger, you sure have a first-class operation going up there. If you guys can't get that piece lifted, is it going to be possible to chunk it up and pull chunks up off the roof using your GCRS?
 
Nice work Rodger... they were really keen to get it off the house...

Couldn't come down and watch - I was on the plow until 9pm last night, and today hand dug for 6 hours.,.. first my paths then an elderly neigbor.. Sure, I need the excercise (not!) ;)



See ya Sunday. Oh, don't come down my driveway unless you want to get stuck forever.
 
I can relate...It was 74 degrees here today, ran the A/C and even now it's a frigid 65 degrees outside. I just went out and topped off the Anti-freeze in all the vehicles, and plugged in the block heater on the Deisel so it will crank tomorrow.

Hopefully it will warm up soon.


:cheers:
 
I can relate...It was 74 degrees here today, ran the A/C and even now it's a frigid 65 degrees outside. I just went out and topped off the Anti-freeze in all the vehicles, and plugged in the block heater on the Deisel so it will crank tomorrow.

Hopefully it will warm up soon.


:cheers:

somebody white-wash red! :)


o/p: i give you guys all the credit in the world. i would never climb like you fellas. out of the question. never ever. stay safe! (on the roads too!)
 
I can relate...It was 74 degrees here today, ran the A/C and even now it's a frigid 65 degrees outside. I just went out and topped off the Anti-freeze in all the vehicles, and plugged in the block heater on the Deisel so it will crank tomorrow.

Hopefully it will warm up soon.


:cheers:

:ices_rofl: I think you just blew your invitation to the PNW GTG.
 
I can relate...It was 74 degrees here today, ran the A/C and even now it's a frigid 65 degrees outside. I just went out and topped off the Anti-freeze in all the vehicles, and plugged in the block heater on the Deisel so it will crank tomorrow.

Hopefully it will warm up soon.


:cheers:

YOU would be on the "No Pie For You" list. Unless you came out today and helped shovel/push/pile/cuss at the slush. :chainsaw:
 
Great job RB as always. Also nice pics. Hope everything goes well today. I know what every ones talking about snow. Been here at Winter Park CO. since Thursday and dumped pretty good Thursday and Friday. Snows slowed down but it was -8 yesterday morning and is a balmy 6 this morning. Man this Texas boy has got to get back to my 60 degrees and thaw out. :givebeer: :givebeer: :givebeer:
 
YOU would be on the "No Pie For You" list. Unless you came out today and helped shovel/push/pile/cuss at the slush. :chainsaw:

mmm...You just made me want to drive up to the Tom Thumb and buy a Big 64 ounce SLUSHY....

Today is 100% humidity, and 70 degrees...no wind, the temp jumps to the mid 70's when the sun comes out.

The A/C went out late last night...Blew a seal at a junction in the outsid unit, guy wont be out until next week to fix the Effer...

Id like some snow right about now.:censored:
 
<embed id="VideoPlayback" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=7403712154812395151&hl=en&fs=true" style="width:400px;height:326px" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> </embed>
Below is what Mike posted on another forum:

Here's the crosspost of the Buzz Buster Video, taken with the Sony GC1 Net Sharing Cam. Handy little gadget.
Oxmans video

Here's the storm damage call that came in today, Saturday. Roger's truck is directly under the Hemlock top in the opening scene of the video. The broken section of treetop is lying horizontal on the roof.

We walk thru a foot and a half of snow around the back of the house to the see the skinny hemlock broke off about a third of the way up. It's about 25' feet away from the deck, and the top is lying up on the 3rd floor roof. It spans most of the length of the 5,000 sq ft house, well balanced across the spine of the roof. A minor gable over the 2nd floor windows cradles the base of the top securely. 2 skylights are precariously located just down slope of the log.

Icicles are draped over the rain gutters, with high 30's temperatures warming the snow, causing drips from the eaves.

Looks like it landed flat, which probly saved the peak of the roof from some of the impact.

Roger starts the ball rolling by setting a line with the throwball about 50 feet up a large adjacent cedar. I climb the stub and hang a pulley. We are able to lasso the stub with the lowering line and cinch it down with a porta-wrap as a stabilization measure. The log on the roof is stable, but it doesn't hurt to make sure.

On the traverse over to the Cedar where Roger has hung my spare climbing line, I am able to reach over and snip off 2, four foot long logs from the butt of the foot in diameter Hemlock top. They easily miss the deck, falling clear. This leaves about 15 feet of the top hanging off the roof.

We proceed to hang a block about 75' up in the cedar. A lowering line runs thru it to the GRCS. The other end is tied to the top, 5 feet from the edge of the roof, about where Roger can reach it from the ladder.

Before coming down, I hang another line in the Cedar about roof height and Roger ties it to hold down the piece that will remain on the roof. When I hit the ground, an additional line is tossed from the front yard, over the roof, ant out to a tree on the opposite side of the house. Just for safety.

Roger climbed up on the roof, then up onto the log, and tied in. He reached over the edge of the roof and made the cut. We lowered the log that extended off the roof in one piece, held by two ropes. One rope was in the porty, the other was in the GRCS. Piece of cake! No problem with that deck at all. A lot of weight was relieved off the roof.

We replaced the lowering lines on the log on the roof. We cranked up the winch to the max, but nothing moved. The hoisting line was stretched tight, too tight. The fairlead route from the winch to the neighboring cedar was not quite straight, causing binding on the pigtails.

Rog has a plan, however. The next step is to substitute the Hobbs Lowering device for the Port-a-wrap, so we can pull from two directions.

Since it was now pitch dark, we decided to call it a night. Never mind the half-mile driveway with the rollercoaster blanket to get out to the road. Tomorrows another day.

--------------------
Arboreally yours,
http://treedr.net
 
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OK, so, as I said we'd do, Mike climbed the hemlock and set a block. I'd thrown a line in at 60 feet, from the roof, and Mike set the block, through a retrievable. But I felt it wasn't high enough to give us a good line angle, so asked Mike to climb up and set the rigging higher, which he did.
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Meanwhile, I'd been on the roof, removing much of the branches, and making sure there were no stubs under the trunk. Threw them off, and tossed a second line to the ground, opposite the side we'd be lifting.
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Eric and Mike moved the GRCS to the live hemlock, and I cut in the hobbs to the snag. Then I climbed the snag, shot pics and filmed, while directing Andy and the homeowner to hold tension on the back lines while Eric cranked the butt up, and Mike the tip. She came off easy and smooth as could be.
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Granted it was a small top, but it was 59 feet long....and we'd cut off 27 feet or so that overhung the deck. The snag was 40 feet, so the tree was ~125 feet tall.....and maybe 16-17" dbh. That's one spindly tree!
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They grow tall at Lake Tuck!! Some firs are approaching 180 feet!! Few are over 28" dbh.....

We'd not started till nearly 12:30, as we hoped the drizzle would let up. Mike drove the wrong road, got stuck in the deep slush, so Bill, the homeowner, had to go pull him out. Just as I put the cameras away, and cut a few sections out of the snag, it commenced to rain. It took us a fair bit of time to derig the trees, and put the gear away. Got done as it was getting dark....

We'll go back when the snow is gone to clean up the brush, and probably remove another hemlock, which is right next to the failed tree.
 
Here's day 2 video

Many thanks to Andy and Bill, ,the homeowner, for handling the holdback lines. During the operation of lifting the tree off the house, no one could see what was happening, except me, 40 feet up the snag.

Warning, this video is 49 mb......way too much of me talking....biotch at me, and i'll shorten it.....It's on Vimeo, my first use of the site. We'll see how it works.

<object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2664236&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2664236&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/2664236">Woodland Hemlock fallen on roof</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user1090539">Roger Barnett</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.
 

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