Sparsely, Sage and Timely
Business overheadI had thought of doing some tree trimming around my property – perhaps with a couple of younger men – once I was mostly retired. But when I realized the scale of what I had in mind, I called veteran Nick Whitney of Pacific Slope Tree Company.
He calculated the job would take a full day using three men plus a chipper and truck with a boom and basket. It did, and no time was wasted.
My top priority was to cut back Monterey pine limbs overhanging my roof, some of them near the chimney. I also wanted decades of accumulated dead twigs and limbs cleared out of the same trees. The view out the glass door of my kitchen looks through the trees’ limbs, and I was tired of having a few dead branches intruding into an otherwise-lush scene.
In addition, several pines along my property lines had accumulated dead limbs that needed pruning for safety’s sake.
Nick, who lives in Inverness Park, arrived at 9 a.m. Monday accompanied by a crew consisting of Brian Arnold of Olema and Vince Saccomanno of Inverness, both of whom I already knew, and Pepe Franco, whom I didn’t.
José Luis Franco grew up on Point Reyes at the Nunes Ranch and now lives at the neighboring Mendoza Ranch. His aunt is Gloria Padilla, who works at the Palace Market meat counter. And he is a wonder.
While Nick scheduled their work, I headed to The Light for the Monday-morning news meeting. As soon as I’d offered my thoughts, however, I returned home to see how the tree work was commencing.
That’s when I realized what an incredible tree climber Pepe is. As I watched from my kitchen door, Pepe stepped carefully along a limb no more than an inch thick although he was 10 feet out from the trunk. How was he doing that? Why didn’t the limb sag or break under his weight?
Then I spotted his climbing line and body harness. So that’s what was holding him up. But then he re-impressed me. After tucking his handsaw in its sheath, Pepe took a Tarzan-like swing and landed on another branch. Immediately, he unsheathed his saw and went back to cutting dead limbs.
I’m getting a trapeze show right off my deck, I thought, and then it got even better. Every so once in a while, Pepe needed to cut the dead end of a limb but there wasn’t even a small branch below it to balance on. I turned away long enough to pour myself a mug of coffee, and when I looked back, Pepe was moving around like a sloth on java jag. He was hanging face up in midair, his feet clamped against a small limb overhead while he sawed furiously at a branch barely within his reach.
"Watching you climb is like going to the circus," I told Pepe when he finally came down from the tree. "You could be a rock climber."
"I don’t think rock climbers have to work everyday," Pepe said with a chuckle.
Nick is one of 10 members of a cooperative known as Pacific Slope Tree Company. Tom Kent of Inverness, whom Nick acknowledges as his mentor, also belongs, and they share an ad in The Light although, Nick explained, they "run separate, independent crews." However, he added, members of the cooperative sometimes "get together on a big job."
Why do tree trimmers work from the top down? The "stuff that falls is going to fall on stuff below," Nick told me. As a climber works his way down a tree, he knocks the "hangers" free, Nick explained.
On the other hand, he noted, "if you’re wrecking a tree, you do it from the bottom up." So if I see a climber working from the top of a tree down, he’s just pruning it, but if he’s working from the bottom up, he’s getting ready to cut it down? Nick laughed and said there are exceptions to the rule.
My final question concerned a couple of small chainsaws affixed to the ends of long poles. I’d watched Vince and Brian using them, but I’ve never seen one in the hands of an amateur even though they allow you to cut an overhead limb without having to climb the tree. The brand name is Power Pruner, Nick noted, but "I like to say it’s a chainsaw on a stick."
By the end of the day, several trees around my property were tidier, more fire safe, and less likely to drop dead limbs on vehicles below. The crew did good work, but Pepe’s showmanship alone was worth the price of the commission.
I’ll be taking a few weeks off from writing this column as I enjoy several short, but overdue, vacations. See you around town.