Timber!

See the tree labeled "this tree"? Yup, that one was slated to come down. Bob was insisting that he was going to fell it; I was equally adamant that I wanted him to remain alive (for some obscure reason...) Anyway, I recalled that my riding instructor Maiya had mentioned that her boyfriend Kyle did tree work so I thought to inquire as to whether this tree was within his abilities. He came and looked and we wound up hiring him to take down four trees altogether.

Damn! I missed the felling of the first one as I had gone to the house to retrieve my camera. Oh well. It came down clean and no one was laying on the ground crushed and dying (except the tree...) so that was good. One down and three to go!

This next tree looked nasty as it was a two-trunked monster and as you can see, Bob and Maiya were roped in to helping. The line they're pulling is hooked by a come-along to another tree further out in the swamp. The rope helps guide the tree to fall where you want it to. So while tension is placed on the right hand tree trunk, Kyle can cut it and leave the left half intact without fear of the tree twisting back and snapping. It's all a bit nerve wracking but hey! they knew what they were doing! (Me? I just take pictures and pray...)

Here Bob is demonstrating his ability to tight rope walk along the tree after it came down. Fun! I was just relieved that three trees had fallen and everyone as okay. 

And here's Maiya modeling "appropriate" footwear for logging activities. Yes, she also wears these shoes when we ride Neko. Crazy kids!

And then on to this beauty! The first one we considered having removed and the last to fall. 

Timber! Down he went! And Kyle did a superb job of landing that tree so accurately! This one had a much greater placement problem: it was inside the horse fence and between several ornamental trees (that we did not want to see damaged...) but it landed perfectly. Good job Kyle!

Now Bob has the fun of cutting up the trees for firewood (he likes this kind of activity) and we have loads of firewood to burn, not that we've had much of a winter. But wood for next year! And probably the year after that! Bob and I cleaned up the entire tree in the next two days (all gone! Already burning in our woodstoves!) I have to admit that the removal of this conspicuously dead tree really improved the view of this whole area. It was a tremendous success all around.