 Here's the big fir leaning over the house... |
 ... it's pretty obvious which way it wants to fall. |
 It's a little hard to see, but the tree up against the yurt stairs has two tops ... one of them rotten and riddled by huge holes (courtesy of the pilliated woodpeckers). |

Chris's truck was too big to turn around
... so they had to back all the way in --- pushing the chipper!
|

They had to thread the needle with the
truck and chipper ...
|
 ... to get in position ... |

... to get up in the air ...
|

... to trim out dead maple and oak branches
...
|

... which meant threading the needle with
the cherry picker ...
|
 ... so Chris could cut the dead wood ... |
 ... before it comes down on it's own ... |
 ... where we park our cars! |

One last shot of Chris getting up into
the tops of the trees.
|
 Meanwhile ... Brandon took care of a maple that was in the way of felling the fir by the house. |
 Then he limbed the fir almost to the top ... |
 ... attached a VERY heavy duty rope ... |
 ... and here's Brandon rapelling back down ... |
 ... to the ground. |
 The winch on the chipper is attched through block and tackle (on a tree uphill from the big fir) to the top of the big fir. |
 The butt of the tree is also tied off. The curve of the trunk will make it "kick" when it falls. |