We had a visit for a couple of days from our oldest and his wife and newborn. With that, his next brother and their newborn came to visit too! What an amazing time it was to have them all and the babies for a time this week! I have really enjoyed it, and felt the joy of having our little family together.
Oldest and I went to the dump where I found out that they will still not be charging to remove firewood in the new year, which is great news for us. He brought home several rounds and split them on my log splitter. While he worked on that, I let him carry on while I went to the tree where the dog pen has been till the goat died a few days ago. The dogs are removed to the goat’s old pen, and their pen now empty. So I pulled up the fence, and I started cutting down the tree. It is a poplar tree of some sort where the branches spread out from down at a low point on the trunk. In fact, the place they begin is about four feet up. Below that, the trunk is very thick and I cannot chop it there as it would be unwieldy and put too much in motion for the ground in some direction at once. So I took them just above the trunk where they diameter of the branches varies between seven and 14 inches or so. I am estimating. Either way, these were long branches, pushing maybe 35 to 45 feet. They came down with a boom!
I got hung up on the one that I always knew was going to be the biggest problem. It was the one that hung way over the house and cottage and shed. Why it had to face that corner, I will never know! I started by putting in a mouth on the west side thinking I would get it to fall away from the corner where the outbuildings meet the corner of the house. Then I cut a line in the other side, on the east, hoping to leave a lever that the whole branch would swing on, but it swung the other way instead, closing up that line. I tried wedging that back open, and while it did, I suspected that since the lever was now made running straight up and down, the top of it would give way, and the whole branch come down with the end of it either through the back door, or through the bathroom windows, or the roof, or worse, it would not move at all, and I would have it on the cottage or shed. I thought it through a while and thought about swinging it the other direction and try to get past the shed to the east, but again, in my head, it was a no go.
Missus came out and agreed with me, it was not going to swing. I had a chain on it just shy of a quarter of the way up at this point, so she suggested I move the truck to the north of the tree and pull through it. I surrendered to her good judgement and when I pulled, it lifted the whole large branch upright, straight up and down. Then I backed up and it lowered it slowly to a point quite a bit lower than the original hanging position, so I definitely broke the lever. It finally gave way, and I think the base of the branch swung towards the tree trunk, and the weight of the ends brought it down in one mighty smash, just short of the house and any of the outbuildings. Missus’ idea had worked! The branch fell, and I was all at once out of a fix!
I downed the last leaner on the west side, leaving now only the main central trunk and its extremities poking right up into the air. I think I can drop that to the west tomorrow. Once it is done, I will clean up all the branches, the piles of dirt that made up the old goat pen and its associated debris, and the dog yuck. Then the only thing to contend with will be a rather large trunk. There are a couple of ideas for that. I can pull, or do the tire pull, or push a little with the tractor. I am desperate to have it out.
The tree has been great for the years it has been around. I have liked the shade. But those days are over now. It is almost completely dead, apart from one area of a ten foot branch or two where it had leaves this summer. It really is dry wood now, and the woodpeckers have been attacking it. There have also been the flocks of starlings landing in it, and I am not going to miss all that noise. I am looking forward to having an open yard, too. I want our grandkids to have a big area where they and honestly, our whole family can safely play about.
I have had to take a few trees down in the back of the house. It’s one of those things that you grow up and know that the right way is to hire a pro. But then you grow up, and money is a good reason not to hire a pro. So here it is, DIY. I need to safely drop this last tall section, and I think the rest will be fairly easy. It is a thick trunk, though. So, I will continue with my usual abundance of caution and over-thinking.
Finally, I found out today as I passed a funeral down at the local Church that six days ago our good neighbor died. I am bummed about it, but I also know he was 99 and seemed to me to be getting eager, as old folks often do. Whatever the circumstances and feelings about his passing, I want to mark this, and that is I really enjoyed his company, and the time we spent in conversations in his living room, or on his front porch as he got older, and over the fence many years ago when he could walk down and lean over. I remember him, Ross Bird, as a good man, who lived like any man, if not like more than a man. He loved his family, his religion, and of course like any sensible man, other things as well. I remember him well. He made me sad at times, because he was sometimes sad. But he also kept his head and sometimes sprung out of that with the most offhanded story. “Hey Ross! What ever happened to that little dog you had?” Sad face. “Oh, I accidentally sucked him through the snow blower while clearing the sidewalks down at the Church.”
