The Great Tree is Brought Down

I love trees.  A lot.  It really pains me to see a tree cut down, especially one with age & beauty.  But, on Saturday my husband followed through with something we've been talking about for quite a while now.  He cut down the large pine in front of our house.

If this tree had been anywhere else on our property we would have kept it.  It was so beautifully shaped.  But, it was also too close to our house.  As you can see it practically covers half the house.  And, it was clogging our gutters and was tangled in the electric lines.  We knew it had to go.


Now, most people would hire someone to come and remove a tree this size from their property.    Not my husband.  He really believes he can do it all (and in most cases he can,  I must admit).    But, with a tree this size it was certainly no easy feat.

John & his friend Jeremy began by removing branches with the chainsaw that they could reach from the ground.  The process of de-branching & then topping the tree was the route they had to go since the tree was so large & so close to both our house & the road.  They couldn't fell the whole thing at once.  Then John began climbing into the tree, carrying the chainsaw with him, working his way upward & removing branches as he went.

 He did use a safety harness as he went higher.  But, I could not watch most of this process.  Do you see how close that chainsaw is to his leg???  One slip....  Let's just say, God was watching over him.   

 Those on the ground dragged the branches away while John continued to work on cutting them down.  John's friend Jeremy & my Father in law were both helping.  John also utilized some child labor.....

 If we had been really smart, we would have done this around Christmas-time & then set up a roadside stand selling greens.  Oh well.  Hindsight.

As branches were being brought down & John was getting closer to topping the tree, the men decided to remove part of our fence, so that when things fell, they didn't damage the fence.  

 Getting close now.  Do you see my husband up there?  He said the only time he really got nervous was when he was about as high as the chimney & he was starting to feel a bit light-headed.

Topping the tree.  My father-in-law stood in the road to watch for any oncoming traffic & gave John the go ahead when it was clear.

And there he is...quite proud of himself...with good reason!  What a man!

Soooo, we still have a 10 foot high de-branched trunk standing in our front yard.  John needs to complete the job, but he said now that most of it is gone he should be able to fell the remainder of the tree across our front yard. 


 He told me that he considered leaving the trunk there to tie the young maple tree to it.  The maple started growing a couple years ago & actually could be a nice tree.  But, it's growing slightly bent away from our house since the pine had been there.  However, I told my husband that in no circumstances are we leaving the trunk for any extended period of time!


So, we're still getting used the the pine not being there anymore.  One huge benefit is that we get more natural light now.  But, as I said it still looks pretty funny in our front yard right now.  We had to chuckle on Sunday morning as we were eating breakfast before church.  We could see our horse and buggy neighbors drive by & do a double-take when they went past our house.  One actually went so far as to slide open their buggy door & crane their neck out, mouth agape!