Two days ago took me two hundred and twenty two miles south to Odenton, Maryland for a day of work with Chris Coates and Bill Routzahn of Advanced Arboriculture.

For the first project we worked in a backyard tulip poplar doing some reduction pruning and simple rigging. Chris set up a half-inch rig line through a Dan House rope sleeve prior to climbing with the throw line-Professor Throw Line. The rigging point was great for snatching up the pieces of brush we pruned off the branch tips in challenging work positions. The rigging allowed us to not stress about having to cut and hold pieces, avoid targets in the two back yards we worked over, and for easy lowering into a desirable drop zone to manage the brush.

A photo sequence of the rigging scheme:

A simple rig, a simple smile, and from the top of that tulip poplar, a view that went for miles.

As I crossed the Pennsylvania boarder around ten o’clock that evening on Interstate 83, my eyes caught the big, blue welcome sign reflecting in the gleam of my headlights.

“Welcome to Pennsylvania,” it read. And under that, a wonderful and simple reminder to cap off a long day in the trees:

“Pursue your happiness.”