Time lapse of tree cleanup

We had some impressive tree limbs ripped off in the storm 6/21.  Some were too big to even drag to the parkway.  I’m really hoping the city will come by and cope with them.

Since there wasn’t much going on with the driveway and since the script seems to be working happily (and since we have power again!) I moved the camera to look out over the branches in the front yard.  Let’s see what it captures.

I never expected to have the time-lapse script be useful again.  I hope it doesn’t turn me into a time-lapse junkie, if for no other reason than that it ties up my camera for days at a time!

Update 6/25/11: Some guy with a chain saw came to the door and asked if he could cut up the branches and keep some of the wood for firewood.  We said he was welcome to do so, and made sure the camera was watching.  Got a nice clip of him at work.  (Well, series of pictures.  Haven’t made it into a video clip yet.  But I will, I promise, and will post it here!)  He did a nice job, and by removing the largest branch made it possible for us to move the rest and clear the sidewalk.  Unfortuntately, the camera had stopped by the time we went out, so no clip of that.  Something about the shoemaker’s kids not having shoes…

Update 6/27/11: Rats.  Heard big noises outside and there was a crew with a chipper-shredder starting to get rid of the branches!  Bad news was that the camera was stopped – memory full.  By the time I could get a couple of directories moved off the card so there was a little room, they were gone.  So near, and yet so far!  For some reason, they stopped in mid-cleanup, so there’s more to do.  Maybe with an empty card I’ll come home after work tomorrow to a fully empty parkway and some actual pictures.  The one interesting thing I saw as I watched (since I couldn’t take any pictures!) was that there was a winch above the opening of the chipper-shredded.  They attached the winch rope to one very large branch (which it took 2 of us to haul onto the parkway) and hauled it across the parkway over to the c-s.  Since the winch was maybe 6′ off the ground, as the end of the branch with the rope neared the c-s, it was lifted about into position to be fed in.  That must be a real major labor-saving device for the crew.  Maybe more to come.

(On a side note, as I tried to cut the grass under where the removed branches had been (on both my grass and my neighbor’s) my very reliable 18 year old lawn mower started making nasty metallic noises and ground to a halt.  No metal in a quick check of the oil, but it wouldn’t run.  Possibly a bad ignition timing slip and a terrible knock, but it ran pretty much normally for the last few minutes – except for really nasty noise –  before it ground to a halt.  I’ll never know now.  I went out bought  a new mower, and the old one was gone from where I left it on the curb within an hour.  But with a little luck I’ll get another 10 or 15 years out of the new one – which may be as long as I’ll be cutting grass!)

Update 6/29/11: Success!  I looked out this morning and the last pile of branches is gone – and the camera is still working!  So no excuse for not making up a video clip – except that I have to go to work today.  But with a little luck I can post it tonight.  Watch this space!

Update 9/12/12: OK, it took a while.  The clip is here.

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2 Responses to Time lapse of tree cleanup

  1. shawn says:

    would love to see the videos!

    • Jim says:

      I’d actually made a video of this one. I added a little narration and put it up on Flickr. I’ll try to get around to a couple of the others.

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