Go big or go home!

[River's Edge]

I'm slowly working through this one- thinning and wiring- over the last few weeks and thought I'd take a picture this morning. I'm not done and dealing with the current apex has my gears grinding a bit but that'll hopefully pass before next spring's push. It really is hard to believe I debated leaving this one in GA 4 years ago.
View attachment 623262
Here is what the tree looked like just over 3 years ago which was when I basically decided lugging this one up to MI had not been a mistake.
View attachment 623263

Nice work so far, great work on the scars. If the gears continue to grind you might consider this spot as a place to build from. Continuing to move the apex a bit right and keeping proportion to a more powerful look in keeping with the base. Just one perspective, great tree lots of options.

 

[Dav4]

If I remember, I like to post end of year updates with my projects. It'll be nine years this spring since these projects began and it's fun to show before/after images of how far we've come.

The first picture was taken in early February, 2020, so about 2.5 years after the layer was separated, and the second is from today. It's cool to see where several of the many threads grafts have developed into important branches. It still needs some thinning and wiring but almost done.

 

[Dav4]

I decided to cut down the sacrifice... it was extending close to five feet above the top of the styled canopy and was complicating my life, so off it went. I'll remove the stub this spring.