CLEAN UP CHAOS

Last weekend's storm besides causing havoc to many Queensland towns it created a buzz of activity in our yard yesterday.  The storm caused a tree to fall in our yard taking out the washing line. The strong winds also broke the cross bar on a power pole in front of our house.

The tree loppers arrived to clean up the fallen tree and the electric company came to fix the power pole at the same time. Our little dead end street has never seen so much action. There were trucks and machines littering the street together with traffic safety people holding 'STOP'/ 'SLOW' lollipops.

TOH has all the power pole activity on his blog and I have the tree saga.

The loppers were a family of four big strapping young men originally from New Zealand. They were very polite and friendly and worked hard. They charge $350 per hour. (Anyone thinking of changing jobs?)

 There were four trunks to this tree. One fell on the washing line, one fell on the footpath and the other two were still standing. The whole lot had to go. 

 Untangling the branches from the rotary line.

 The two trees on the ground are cut up and removed. Then it was time to climb the rest of the tree and bring it down. 

The boss asked his offsiders who wanted to do it. They all shook their heads so the boss had to do it himself. He is helped into his safety harness and leg straps, 

It looked scary because the trunks were very skinny and had been weakened by the storm and this guy was big and heavy. Would it hold his weight?

I was amazed at how he just walked up the thin trunk. He must have had some sort of special grip on his boots.

His chain saw is dangling below him on a cable.

Notice the traffic control person in the street while the electricity linesmen fix the power pole just 10m away from the tree lopper.

 He saws off the branches on his way up. (These shots were taken from our deck upstairs by TOH and me.)

 Then he straddles both trunks to get higher. How do they support his weight I wonder?

 Now he saws off the tops of the trees, while the linesmen are in their 'cherry picker ' basket not far away fixing the crossbar of the power pole. 

The logs are carried away to the ......

 ........truck, which had to park around the side street as the front road was full up with the electricity vehicles. (We live on a corner).

Now all is cleared away, I have a load of garden renovations to do and TOH has to organise a new washing line. Luckily our insurance is paying for everything.