03/16/2025
Today was a mentally and physically demanding day.
We played the devil's Jenga with the blown over tree that I stabilized yesterday. It took every rope I own, slings, some ratchet straps to help maintain tension adjustments, three chainsaws, the bobcat loader with the grapple, and myself plus two of my guys. But we successfully removed the tree with no more damage than what had already been caused from the fall yesterday.
I'm very fortunate to have the guys and gals that I do. Without them LS Tree Care wouldn't be what it is.
Projects like this one can really test the knowledge of yourself and your crew of what you are physically and mentally able to do. And I am happy to say that my guys are awesome at what they do.
One of them that was with me today is somewhat newer to this and has not seen a project this complicated yet. At one point he made a comment that he was nervous about what we were doing. I had to explain to him the nerves that you're feeling is what makes sure that you are doing the right thing. That's what makes you look at your rigging three or four times before you make that final cut and let that 300 lb piece of trunk loose or that 30 ft limb loose from the tree and hit that line and not the house or hurt one of us.
As we continued to work and were talking through our helmet intercoms, I told him this. "Its okay to have butterflies in your gut sometimes around this work, but you have to move with purpose and be confident in your decisions and the movements and methods you use." I went on to explain, "that is what keeps us from being injured or otherwise so we can go home at the end of the day. And to allow customers to be confident they made the right decision in calling us and not tackling something like this on their own."
We take this work personal, every saw cut, every knot, every placement of the carabiners. However, no job is without its battles. Some days are a struggle and can seem impossible, until you do it. Do the impossible. Everyone is made for something, we were made for this.
