Today was the first day in what will be a rather long creative and technical process to get the Dream Tree in place at The Urban Chalkboard.

Getting 500 Pounds Through a Window

With the help of Dave Phelps and Joe Newman—and the support of Urban Chalkboard co-founder Tonya Bergeson-Dana, who kept us well fed and hydrated all day—we transported the tree over, got it through the window, and moved it to the pedestal.

But when we hoisted it into place, it hit the trusses on the way to vertical. Oops. First hitch.

With not too much insanity we managed to get it standing upright next to the pedestal. Then it was somehow decided that Dave was going to use brute force and a giant bear hug to lift this 500+ pound tree two feet straight up and onto the pedestal. Really? OK… sure.

There was the help of a rope and pulley, but I can’t say they were really doing much. One, two, heave ho—and I got my hands under there to lift as well. Between getting it high enough, not tangling it in the overhead trusses, and sliding the pedestal underneath, things got very hairy very fast. But somehow we got it up there without any hernias or spilled blood, though I came closer than I’d like to getting my fingers crushed.

Whew. The most daunting task of the day was behind us.

Attaching the Limbs

The rest of the afternoon was spent attaching the four major limbs. This involved a lot of moving the scaffolding and scissor lift, trying to manipulate the limbs into place without crashing through studs or getting tangled up in the overhead metalwork.

The first three weren’t too bad. It was the last that proved to be the troublemaker—an unwieldy forking branch that headed straight into the giant overhead ductwork. We unfortunately had to take a saw to it a few times. My extremely old and dull saw wasn’t making cutting through four-inch branches very easy, so Tonya went off to the hardware store for a new one. It made the task considerably easier. I could tell by the look on Dave’s face.

Soon we had the final branch in place. It was time for a DIPA.

What’s Next

Tomorrow we attach a few remaining small branches, sand away some marks that have accumulated, and wrap the whole thing in plastic to protect it—the construction site still has a way to go.

I shot some time-lapse today. After tomorrow’s work I’ll post it.