David Penfold 
Had a meeting this morning that the other party postponed at the last minute. Grr. At least I can deal with that slightly over-zealous tree that is encroaching on the overhead power line coming into the house. If you don't hear from me again I've over-estimated my abilities. Again.
I'm sure this third espresso will help, and not at all make me jittery, no sirree.
Couldn't find the big stepladder to jury rig the big ladder to in order to attack the higher branches. So I resorted to the 5m long manual cutter thing. This may be a good move.
Managed to start pruning the smaller peripheral branches and one of the 3cm thick ones that was actually interfering with the overhead cables. It's really tough work to engage enough power. On the second one I think I just tore my right bicep as I finally got the damn thing to cut. Bugger.
Waiting to see how bad the damage is. Still, it beats any sort of chainsaw mishap.
Ok, right bicep tear is painful but there's no lump of muscle tissue that I can see so it's not completely gone. I'm now mainly using my left arm and angling the cutting head to be optimal for each given branch.
Or I was. I now have an impromptu artwork in the garden as I may have slightly over-lengthened the cutting tool. It's impossible to bring down as the two parts are detached and the top half is cutting into a branch. Oops.
Right, sod this. Time for the nucular option. I'm going to attach the big ladder to the tree, wear my harness, and attach that higher up so I can attack the main branches with the chainsaw. What could possibly go wrong?
I'm going to strap myself in well. The problem with that though is that I can't get out of the way should a branch do something unexpected (a basic tenet of chainsawing). However, we're not talking about full trunks here. I'm also not sure if I can hold the chainsaw properly with my buggered bicep...
Nope, my bicep is too knackered. Ho hum, probably for the best.
Rocketman@slothrop I think you may be right 🤪