Though it’s exciting to me, I was a bit surprised at how exciting this operation has been to lots of other people. We made the newspapers (Arizona Daily Star and the Tucson Citizen) and I’m told the monkey was also on tv last week. The big move was Saturday. Just in case anyone else ever needs to move a 17-foot tall cement monkey with attached palm tree, here’s how we did it!

First we had to brace the separate pieces.

Then a concrete-cutting specialist got up on a ladder with the biggest old circular saw you ever saw.

There was a bit of settling, but nothing too drastic!

Once separated from the monkey, the tree needed to be separated from the ground. It was fairly narrow, so the circular saw worked just fine.

Up up and away! The tree was lifted over the fence…

He looks kind of sad with his arm missing like that, doesn’t he? He was hanging off that tree for about 40 years!

And onto one of the waiting trucks. Sometimes it’s good to have a friend who happens to own a truck that can carry 5,000 pounds!

Before cutting, we hooked up the crane to a halter around the monkey. That way, if anything unbalanced, we’d have a safety backup in place.

This part was tricky. The feet were too wide to use just that circular saw, so we had to have a jack hammer and multiple people clearing away debris until we loosened the monkey from his base.

The big heavy crane lifts him over the fence. Estimated monkey weight=4,000 pounds.

We had to lay him down for transport, but he didn’t lay flat and required even more bracing. And ropes. And strapping. Good thing we had a couple of engineers on hand!

Good bye, Magic Carpet! We had our own mini-parade heading down Speedway – two trucks, the crane, various helpers, and even a couple of newspaper photographers.

At the new location, we do it in reverse. Well, not the cutting part, just the lifting. First we pulled into the driveway…

Then lifted him onto the side yard. This part wasn’t quite as dignified as the first lift.

And there he’ll rest for a bit, waiting until we can arrange to set him upright again.

In case you missed it, here’s my post on the purchase!