Friday, 24 January 2014
On Thursday, while doing some weeding in the afternoon, I had an anxious eye on Danger Tree as enough wind was blowing to make me worry that one of the dead branches would fall. I’d had enough of the worry, so into the house I went and called Wooly’s Tree Service. (Their ad did not promote TOPPING, which is why I chose them over the other outfit. Even though it did not matter how Danger Tree was treated, I don’t want to encourage a business that pushes the topping of trees.)
We missed the return phone call that afternoon and the next morning (at 7:30 AM when the phone was turned off), so I called back as soon as I woke up (midmorning). The foreman came right over and said the crew would come that very afternoon and take Danger Tree down.
I photographed the exciting event mostly from the north end of the back yard, and Allan photographed it from the south end. The climber’s bravery and skill boggled my mind. Even the day’s light wind had the dry and brittle tree swaying slightly, but he went up to the top and back down again with no hesitation, just the occasional brief stop to rest from the heavy saw.
As soon as the branches quit falling, the climber’s helpers chopped the trunk into large but manageable rounds. We had an agreement that we would do all the clean up other than that. The price of the job was reasonable and we tipped well. Our new neighbour, New Judy, planned to come the very next day with her son and gather all the larger wood, and some kindling, because she heats her cottage with a wood stove.
I decided to have the cutter leave a tall snag. I suggested to the foreman that the stump be cut at an angle so that it looked natural. He said, rather endearingly, “I think you want it flat for that thing you are going to find at a garage sale and want to put on top.” Maybe so, so pretty much flat is how it came out.
The slideshow has my view first, followed by Allan’s. I will follow this post with a “best of danger tree” as some people might have trouble seeing the slide show (or, like me, not have the time to watch a slideshow because they have a blog entry to make or a book to read).
New Judy told us that her son uses the flat top of a tree at his home to put out bird food. That would be a good idea but ours is too tall for that….so I’ll use it for “that thing I’m going to find at a garage sale”. Two other friends suggested we have it carved into a sculpture, and one was sure Allan could do it. That’s not one of his skills…yet.
I can’t get the slideshow to load!
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Well, phooey. Not sure what to do about that!
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Am having Allan test it on his computer…I’ll ask a couple of FB friends to check it to. Maybe I will do a second post on the best of danger tree coming down (best photos)
It is working on his computer (mac, chrome) but I still think I will do a best of!
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Got it! Glad the tree is down. I’ve got one near the house that’s pushing out a fence, similar in size and I think that’s almost $1k to take it down! blah.
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Wow, we were lucky, this one cost $200, and then we tipped all the workers well on top of that, especially the climber!
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Safe decision!
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Great slide show! Did they yell as they were dropping branches and stuff? When we had a crew here a few years ago to trim some of the Douglas firs, they yelled “Headache!” as stuff dropped.
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Cute!!! No, the climber was disconcertingly silent, so the crew stayed well out of the way for most of it, but then they got itchy to saw while he was still dropping big trunk pieces! I think they had a wordless communication because the ground crew seemed to know when the last couple of trucks were coming down.
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Glad that you’re finally free of that worrisome tree!
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Now you can go out there without having to donn a hard hat or worry about a headache yourself!
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I felt a sense of relief just now when I walked out there and it was not lurking above. Did not intend to garden but weather got nice. Came in for gloves which of course turned into a social Internet break.
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Just amazing! Maybe you could carve lots of little niches in the stump and place ferns in them or little figurines. I can see it wrapped in fairy lights too.
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Now that is a really cool idea!!
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