The Eucalyptus - part 2

This is a zoomed shot showing one of the knots they tied to ensure the control of the cut branch or tree part. The knots they were tying were specific to each application needed to accomplish the trimming of the tree to the ground without damage to the small space or to themselves. They did a superb job with no damage to speak of, to the plants in the area and none to the roof.
The tree is coming down! I was shooting most of these photos from our bedroom window that looks out over the garage roof. Unfortunately, I did not get a good shot of a branch falling. At this point most the the branches are off the tree and ready to be fed into the chipper. The trunk of the tree will need the attention of the chain saw, in fireplace size increments.
They would throw a rope around the limb that they were going to bring down next, and secure it so that they could control where it fell. They were really good at lassoing the branch they wanted to work with next. Lloyd would pull on the rope to create a bit of tension on the branch while Graham cut it off. You could see that they worked well together and knew exactly what they were doing. Jason, sidelined for the moment, was dragging away limbs to the patio area where they had backed up the truck and chipper.
They progressed up the tree, taking off the lower branches first. At this point the top of the tree is still towering over the houses.
The crew removed most of the lower branches, leaving Graham stubs of branches to use as footsteps up the tree. As they progressed, they attached guide ropes to the limbs that they wanted to bring down in the next sequence. Graham was using his pruning saw at first, as their were just too many possible snags for the chain saw. As he cut the limbs, he would drop them, avoiding most of the plants beneath. I have a special hydrangea that we protected from damage with an up turned garbage can over it.
This is Lloyd sweeping the debris off the roof. This tree drops some roundish parts that make the footing on the roof very precarious. They vacuumed up the debris on the roof to ensure a stable workspace. Lloyd came over to lend a hand because Jason had hurt his ankle on some earlier job and he had to take it easy. If Jason had had to jump off the roof to avoid the wasps, he would have re-injured his ankle. Fortunately, he did not jump, too far. The roof of the garage is about 5 - 7 feet from the ground at the far end, and not a really big leap.
You can see that the workspace is quite extensive. At this point, Jason had been chased off the roof by the wasps that, it seems, had a nests by one of the vents in the garage roof. The bug spray only made them mad.
After filling out the email form on Davey Tree's website, I had a call within a couple days from Lloyd that he would be around to give me an estimate the next day. This is great.. no time to change my mind! I agreed to the price and he called back with a time to get the job done. The crew arrived and set to work right after lunch.(two days ago) Their clothes were clean and they were smiling and happy. This is Graham, up the tree to begin the operation.

The photos are from two days ago when we had the big eucalyptus tree taken down by Davey Tree. They did a great job! I paid $420 to have this done, but it is worth it for me. It took 3 men 3 hours to do this, as well as having their special truck and all the equipment. These people know what they are doing!