We finally had that fallen fir tree cut down. The arborist did a great job of not smashing the fence.
The tree was 120 feet tall. Now it’s in about 20 pieces, staked to the banks of the creek into which the pieces fell as they were cut.
I was right about the rigging. The arborist had tied himself to a nearby tree and shaved off all the branches on the near side, in case he would have to Tarzan over to it if the one he was cutting gave way. There was some risk that as he lopped the top off, the base of the tree would stand back up, catapulting him across the back yard. Note how the trunk is tied off.
There was a nontrivial risk of dismemberment in this project. That’s one of my criteria for outsourcing house- and yardwork: “Can I lose a limb? If yes, call a contractor.”
For you visual learners, Joe Stump created this handy flowchart. I’m wishing there were some cute iconographic representations of severed limbs on there. Does anyone on alt.tasteless make a clip-art collection?