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Tree trimming album

Sometimes a tree needs to be trimmed if it is getting in the way of wires, or like this old wild olive, dragging on a roof. Most of the branches were 2cm (under an inch) and about ten were 6cm (2.5 inches). We wanted to remove all branches presently touching the roof as well as those which could do so in the next couple of years if they grew.

The job was for mum who is 87. She was on the roof, in the thick of things, lifting branches and managing the project from the parapet wall, no acrophobia, this one. She wanted to hire pros, but came to us first and saved herself a fortune. We could do this for money ! We'd love to do small local garden maintenance jobs as another income stream on top of writing. We need the cash sometimes.

On the hot tin roof...also for 87 and 56 year olds

Tools for tree trimming

2 ton ropes for supporting and lowering big branches

ordinary nylon ropes for steering the dropping branch

bow saw

electric saw

chain saw

long ladders

What tools to use for this small job ? We have used a bow saw for all our tree trimming on Acacia karoo, which is pretty hard, but olive is really hard. We thought a chain saw too excessive and they were all taken anyway, so we hired this single blade battery driven saw and it worked perfectly. It can cut branches up to 15 cm (just under 6 inches). To prevent the branches crashing down on the tin roof and denting it, Stephan cut 2/3 of the way through each branch and then broke them slowly by hand while I pulled on ropes to get them to drop in the right direction.

battery driven tree saw

tree too close

the saw is light

mum clears up

speedy power tool

easy to control

no more scraping

fixing guide ropes

less sweat

finished in 2 hours

benefits of being on the roof, the view east

and Devil's Peak and Table Mountain in the west

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