I've been doing a bit of hedge maintenance - chopping down the 25 feet or so that's grown out of the top of my 8 foot hedge. Managed 40 foot or so today, got about the same again to do next weekend - the overhead power line in the pic stopped play, as the wind wants to push the trees that way, and next door will be miffed if I cut their power.
So - how can I get a rope high up in the tree, so I can pull it in the right direction when it falls? (cutting a wedge into the tree does fuck all, if there's wind).
I've tried lobbing a weighted line up, but can't get through the branches, got to love leylandii. Is there some kind of stick contraption that will let me lock a rope around the tree and tie it off? I need to get the line higher than I can reach from the top of the ladder, probably aout 25-30 feet to be confident that the tree's coming down where I want (they're quite heavy, and have quite a lot of wind loading).
>>2626 Yeah - Leylandii aren't really precious to me, though.
Previous owners of this place subscribed to the 'every tree is sacred, let them grow where and how they will'. This has led to some severe overcrowding and unhealthy trees, and daft stuff like the 30 foot 'hedge' blocking out light from some ancient apple trees which could really use some TLC (and light).
TL;DR: sometimes chopping or other management is better for trees. I hope.
>>2631 after years of wobbling around, I finally bought an orchard ladder. It's brilliant, weighs nothing and is absurdly stable in a way that a regular ladder can never be. The third leg is length adjustable, or you can just lean it against stuff. Best ladder ever, tempted to buy a taller one as well, but the prices get high above 3m.
>>2632 I've admired them for a long time - for all the reasons you say. Glad to hear they are as good as I thought, I will definitely buy one now.. in the past I have experimented with various kinds of (cheap) scaffolding tower to trim trees, but they're an arse and not that useful for the rest of the year.