Arborist Work with the Help of a Pig

This one-eared sow is gonna be dinner in a few months if we’re lucky!

We measure our rainfall in “buckets” … a bucket is 15″.  January has brought us 2+ buckets, one of them in the last 2 days.  Today’s forecast 50% rain turned into sun, so we took advantage of the opportunity to prepare a couple of African Tulip Trees for felling.  They were a little tricky because, like most of our trees, their crowns grow together plus the lay line was right through a bunch of 10′ ti plants and right next to our beloved ‘ulu tree (it produces a sweet fruit that’s way more ono than most).  We didn’t want to damage the tree and impact the sweet breadfruit we get from it, so we decided Tom would climb the tree and put some of his newly learned arborist skills to work.

After clearing the area of miscellaneous weeds, deadfall and other detritus, we developed a plan; we would trim off branches that intertwined with other trees and any that we thought might hit the ‘ulu on the way down.   No sooner did we toss a throwline into the tree and pull up the climbing line than a sow came along like she owned the place.  Oh, that’s right … she does, along with all her brethren piggies.  She showed no fear, a trait that Tom especially appreciates.  He’s not real fond of hunting, but he sure likes catching and eating, particularly those critters that dig up our gardens.

We’re still honing our arborist skills and adding new gear.   Feeling a bit out of shape, Tom added a prusik and web loop as a foot hold rather than use a secured footlock techique which requires more skill to wrap the running end of the loop around your feet and lift up.  It was a great addition that made life much easier!  He climbed fairly quickly up about 25’ and began cutting off a few branches using his favorite Silky Sugowaza saw; it cuts like butter.   Set up a pulley in the tree and Chris ran a rigging line to a nearby rubber tree that was overhanging the bananas which he then cut down without damaging them.

Stripped of their protruding limbs, the trees can now be felled without hurting the ‘ulu tree (on the left).

While Chris was cleaning up the felled rubber tree and then photographing the pig, Tom attached a lanyard and climbed up over his tie-in point so that he could reposition his climbing rope a bit higher.  Once repositioned, Chris sent up the polesaw and Tom cut out the rest of the problem branches.  It was pau hana time by then, so Tom climbed down, we picked up the gear, admired our work and went off to harvest 3 racks of bananas.  We took a couple of racks to our neighbor and closed out the day sipping tea and talking story.