We had our own zombie apocalypse late Friday afternoon and yesterday.
Just before I was going to going join some of the bond team to review neighborhood traffic safety projects for 2021, I received a call from Robin telling me our 70-ft tall Big Leaf Maple fell onto our house. Ugh. Stinking zombies.
Fortunately, we have have an arborist who has done work for us before in southeast Portland. (I know - who has an arborist? Seriously. At our old house he removed a large Norway Maple that had split, but that did not fall on the house and he removed and replanted two dying street trees, so we have an arborist - Chad Honl of Honl Tree Care #honltreecare). Friday night, he was able to arrange for a crew and a 60-ton crane to come remove the offending tree early Saturday.
The craning operator was really nervous. We live on a hill with a narrow private road for access. They don’t like to set their cranes up on hills on the West Hills because they can cause the hill to slide. They also like a lot more room than we had available. It was a very tight fit. In the photo below, the crane’s outrigger is just a few feet from a 6-ft drop-off (moat?) between the road and the house.
There was a lot of swearing and wild waving of his arms as he and Chad discussed how to go about removing this large and heavy tree from our house. They took the tree out in pieces - maybe ten picks. The whole crew did a great job. The crane operator was really precise and Chad’s tree climber was really good. The whole operation took about four hours plus an hour of planning. Chad was giddy because it all went so smoothly. We felt lucky.
There is some damage to the house. No water leaks that we could see - phew. The tree didn’t fall very far before it hit the house. If it had picked up speed, the damage would have been way worse - I feel super lucky.
The tree will make its artwork debut at one of the shows next year - probably the Bellevue Art Museum show. And now we have space for a deck on the front of the house. :)
Robin and I spent the rest of the day sawing up logs and coating the ends with emulsified wax to they don’t split as they dry. I was smart enough to let most of the tree go to the chipper (it was really hard to see good wood turned into bark chips), but I still probably kept too much wood. It’s a bad habit. :)
We haven’t seen the bill yet, but I suspect a 60 ton crane for four hours won’t be cheap. Oh and they were all earning OT for working on Saturday…
Our insurance company USAA will cover all but our dedcutible. We’ll get a contractor out here this week to inspect the attic, chimney, and roof and give us an estimate and schedule for repair the house.
The zombie apocalypse is real.
And I suspect the birds are spying on us - probably for the zombies but maybe for Elon Musk getting us ready for chip implants. Anything is possible in 2020.
The 60-ton crane barely fit.
Good thing it didn’t fall very far before hitting the house - Lucky.
Super impressive tree climbing with a chainsaw.