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.

Now What Are They Making!?!??!!?

Well, true to my threats and promises, I started makin' mosaic on one of the dead trees. Here is an underpinning... sort of a cross between armor and lingerie. Tree looks sexy: all silvery and sinuous and shiny!

My hands and arms don't, though. Despite wearing gloves and a long sleeved sweat shirt, the metal lathing (that I had to apply in order to give a surface for the cement to stick to) is very sharp and scratched the hell out of me. It was fun anyway, learning to use a new material and solve problems along the way. First I tried wiring the pieces together but that didn't work. Then I discovered that fencing nails (the ones bent like "U" shapes) worked, as did the big-headed nails that Bob gave me. (Bob was busy repairing his studio roof line... there's always something to do around here!) I bashed my thumb and swore up a storm but it was exciting and challenging.
Several experts suggested that I reinforce the base of the tree with rebar* but I- maybe impetuous!- declined, thinking that the dead tree, once it's housed in a sheath of concrete, will stand longer than I will. Besides, if it falls over, we'll gave spectacular ruins and it will still be a romantic mess! O Ozymandias!!

My assembled tools; not sure if you can see the cache of band-aids in the corner of the wheel barrow!
It will be interesting to see how far I get with all the broken crockery I have assembled. When we did the walkway, I thought we'd have tons and tons of material but it got used up quickly and I had to go to a second hand store and purchase an entire snow-flake themed set of dinnerware. If the walkway was predominately blue and white (it borders the Blue Garden), I am feeling this trunk will be corseted in more reds and oranges. I have some right purty coppery/autumnal platters to smash!

As my riding lesson was cancelled today due to high winds and a chance of rain, I may be able to start the cement stage of the proceedings. I learned from our adventures on the walk way that planning a design a head of time- and preparing the pieces- makes the job easier.

*Hey! The experts who work in rebar were unavailable due to scheduling (and other) conflicts. this meant I either had to wait (until god knows when) or never begin this project. The clematis that I planted on this very same tree skeleton was growing fast!!

The Tree Guys Returneth

Oh no!! Not again! Yes, we have more vast piles of sticks, trunks, branches and logs to remove from our yard. We do have our work cut out for us. But we're happy! We rejoice! Because they did come back and did a swell job. (We've been waiting for a few months, as you may recall. The tree guys were busy and the weather was against us. I guess we can also admit that it was nice to have a break in between gigantic clean up duties...)
Here are some action shots:

And they were wicked fast. The arrived shortly after 9:00 am and by 10:30 they were done and gone.

They worked fast but were remarkably accurate and careful. As we watched out the window, Bob
said, "I guess you can say goodbye to the little Japanese black pine you planted there." And I opined philosophically that was probably the price of having gambled and planted right where they were eventually dropping trees. But much to my wondering eyes, when I examined the scene of all this mayhem, the little pine was fine! It was surrounded by branches and debris but utterly unscathed. And all the rhododendrons were fine, too. (Which makes me doubly happy because they have finally grown and they all have buds.) Good job!

Boy, I could never do this: these guys are thirty feet up in the air in a bucket and it's windy and they're swinging a chain saw around. Not my idea of fun.
We had requested that they leave the trunks about 8 to 10 feet tall because I have this (half crazy) idea that I am going to apply mosaic to them, like we did on the pathway. I'm psyched but was a little disappointed that the one dangerous, precariously leaning tree was left- leaning- but about 10 feet tall. I remarked to Bob that I should have asked them to take that one all the way down. But he pointed out that that was actually the TOP of one of the trees they had dropped, and it had landed upside down, stuck in the ground. Wow.

There's Bob watching the last tree being removed. Bob is so smart; we had taken a walk in our woods the other day, searching for an Xmas tree. We tentatively picked one out, but I think we both felt badly sacrificing a nice living tree for a couple of weeks of joy. So then Bob says, "Why don't we fabricate a tree from the fallen pines and spruces?" What a genius idea! The constructed tree looks really good* and is ready to come in a be decorated. A win/win and it didn't cost us anything (except the money to have the tree guys visit.)

To be featured in an upcoming post.

The Tree Guys Cometh

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayy!! The tree guys finally came to liberate the house from the precarious leaners and to cut down several other potential threats. They wedged a large truck in between the house and the vegetable garden- a tight fit!- and went to work. We found this most exciting!

This is from a slightly different angle, safely out of the way, showing the trees still on the roof and the other ones standing. (I'm inserting more pictures than typical in this post as how often do you have men in buckets swarming your house and trees??!!)

Here's a reminder of how dangerous these things were.

Going up! There were two tree guys: one went up in the bucket and hauled all the aerial stuff down. The other guy admitted to being glad he no longer went up in the bucket as he was afraid of heights; he has company there!

You couldn't pay me! Especially wielding a crazy chain saw!

They had to work together to rope and brace the tree that was leaning on the roof to the other tilted tree and cut off and lower chunks down (carefully!). They were really good at this. Only a modest chip happened to the end of our walkway and no shrubs or trees were harmed (A couple of perennials got driven over but there was no way to avoid that. And a whole lot more damage would have occurred if those trees had fallen on us or the garden!) I mean, this is a heavily gardened area and I'm relieved that I can get in there and weed and plant.

Half gone! You have to appreciate that that bucket is a good twenty feet up! Yikes!

Here they are from the other side, attacking the dead/dying row of pines and spruces. Yes, they were cool trees- looking all skeletal and "Californian" but they did prove dangerous.

Last one standing!! Our house does need a repair. (That's the next project...) It only took a couple of hours total and everything looked...

Oh no! It looked just like after the tornado!!

And... everywhere you look... more branches! More limbs! More cleanup!!!

And with all that work to look forward to, I don't know what Bob was so happy about! (Probably the very excellent fact that we no longer live in danger and we can get the house repaired and WE didn't have to remove the trees and risk life and limb!!)

We felt like such "homeowners", an unusual feeling for us. We traditionally do all our own work; quite interesting to be on the other end and hire people. I could get used to it! (Hahhaahha!!)