You may remember my tale of woe about a dead looking willow about this time last year:
Most of the stuff that fell off it during the winter was very dry and brittle, and the woodpeckers had also started making a swiss cheese out of the end of the branch to the left that was close to one of the neighbours garages. So I decided it was time to take down the doubtful looking bits.
Taking care to only ladder the sound looking bits (and tying it on!), I did a few test cuts on some of the smaller dead looking branches. They really were past it. No bend in them at all - as you cut through, there came a point they just snapped and fell, and exploded into a shower of bits on impact. The density of the wood was also very low. So the one overhanging the neighbour I got a rope around, did a partial cut until it started creaking a bit, and then got down and well away. A couple of us pulling on the rope snapped it off and directed the fall away from the garage. The remaining bits on that side I could just about reach the thinner branches from my ladder with the pole mounted chainsaw, so I trimmed them off first to get the weight and size down, before taking the end of the main branch down in sections. I left one part of one of the lower sounder looking branches to use as a ladder rest while dealing with the next branch up, but then cut that right back as well when the top was done.
So now we are left with a rather lop sided looking specimin:
Got a couple of trailer loads of logs out of the bigger stuff: