TIMBER!!! Oh Wow..

Not long after getting mom home from the hospital, after eating something decent, I decided to clean up my kitchen and then take it easy. I debated on watching a movie or even taking a nap. One does not sleep well in a recliner in a hospital.  As I cleaned my kitchen, my phone rang. It was the gentleman from the tree service. He wanted to know if it was okay to come by and finish taking the tree down. Absolutely.

They would be here in less than an hour so I called the dogs in and secured them. I thought I did anyway. I then moved both cars out of the way and to safety. Then I came up here and waited. As I waited I heard it begin to thunder almost all around me.

I heard the trucks as they pulled down the road and into the drive. Carrying my cup of coffee with me I went outside and found a safe spot to observe. It is an interesting process, taking these large trees down safely. When they were out the first time, they used tree spikes and climbed up taking the lower limbs off. After getting up so high, and after looking at the condition and direction of the limbs, they decided to use their big boom truck. Which wasn’t with them.

Today they drove that big boy down the drive and made ready to go into battle against the mighty Oak.And I, doing my best to stay out of the way and yet still document the activity was ready to watch. They moved my fence wire out of the way and began to raise the bucket. One by one the limbs were roped off, cut and lowered to the ground. They would lower a few limbs, then take a break to stay hydrated and refill the chainsaws. During one of those moments, I went for another cup of coffee. When I came back around the house I noticed that dad had walked up. He was curious as always. After a few minutes I did something that would normally be considered rude. I told my dad to go home. He didn’t need to be there. It was dangerous and it was still trying to rain. He didn’t argue with me, he stood up and ambled back home. When they were cutting the limbs, every once in a while one would land hard and the ground would actually shake. As the limbs would come down, members of the crew would trim the leaves off and cut the wood into manageable pieces. Even going so far as to stack the wood off to the side where I had told them. The sections that were too small to burn, all the stuff covered ni leaves, was dragged down across the backyard and into the woods.  Finally all the limbs were down leaving the trunk looking naked, standing tall waiting its turn.

They cut the trunk almost in half, laying the top across the drive.Then a wedge was cut out of the trunk just a couple feet from the ground. When the wedge was removed it became very obvious that the tree was largely hollow. That was concerning to say the least.The rest of the trunk was  brought down and they then began cutting the tree into manageable pieces. 

At one point one of the crew asked if it would bother me if they stopped where they were and then come back tomorrow morning with a smaller tractor – he told me what it was called but I forget. I told them that as long as my son could get his bike out tomorrow and as long as they put my fence back, I was fine with it. So they made sure he could get out to go to work and the fence was put up enough to allow the dogs to be out. They will fully secure it tomorrow.

There was one thing that I saw, but didn’t mention to anyone then, but will now. I looked at one of the sections of the trunk lying in the drive and noticed something odd. I could have sworn that I saw my name written on the trunk of the tree. I looked away and back, and it was still there. Plain as day to me, but when I took photos, I can’t see it. At some point I’ll play a bit with lighting and zooming in, but for now, I’ll just take it as a message to me that we are always being protected and looked after. That tree may have lived for many more years, or a big wind could have taken it down tomorrow. Now that danger is gone, and we’ll have firewood.

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