Timber!!!

With November fast approaching we started looking at one of our large locust trees.  It sits right next to the house and overhangs half the roof, and is very thorny.  Every November during our wind storm season, it drops branches on the house and I lose a few years each time I hear them go thump when they hit the house!  Not long ago there was an incident at the university when a co-ed was reading a book under a HUGE locust tree and got up to head over to the student union building, just a few minutes later a limb the size of Baltimore let go.  She would have been killed if she was still sitting there.  She was quite shocked to see it come down as she was walking away.  Glad she paid attention to her instinct to get up and leave!  Someone was looking out for her that day!

Anyway, we knew it was just a matter of time before the tree broke off, so we called a tree expert to take a look at them.  He came over, looked at our main concern and agreed that yes, it needs to come out.  It was unbalanced and the truck was actually three trunks grown together so it isn't as strong as one solid trunk.  I also was hoping to get another locust tree near our back yard taken down as well.  It was so tall that it was shading our apple trees and vegetable garden so they only get a half day of sun now, plus it kept dropping leaves in the dog kennel for our dogs to eat.  No, that one was well balanced and healthy. Of course.  But another one near the first tree that we need taken out was very unbalanced and would surely come down in a storm without the other tree there to protect it.  Okay, so it was decided that those two, over 100 feet tall, would come down.

Here are a few pictures of the big event.  The first day he arrived, he went after the smaller second tree and just de-limbed it.

You can see the first tree with the three trunks on the right side of the picture

Dave spent the weekend cleaning it up.  Dave was out until dark cleaning it up.  And he had a little help too:

Mama deer and her baby were happy to eat as much as they could to help us out.

Then last Monday after all the limbs were cleaned up, the tree guy arrived to do more.  After hearing big thuds hit the ground and him walking on the roof, I decided to grab the dogs and retreat to the other side of the house.  After he was done, our yard looked like this:

Branches landed a little too close to the windows!

Where's our front yard?

The branches were pulled away from the house before he left

Dave took a few half days off work this last week to clean up since it now gets dark earlier, and the pile is slowly getting cleared away.  We also noticed a few deep holes in the lawn from where the tree and limbs came down.  

Looking better!

What a good saw!  :)

One of several loads that went to Clean Green recycling

That's better!

Wood shed - just the beginning

Still have some wood splitting to do...

Lots and lots of wood!

Anyone want to get some exercise?  :)

I think the woodshed will be quite full when all this wood gets split and put in there.  All that is left is the tree guy will be back this coming week to take out the tree stumps. Once the wood is split and dried a bit, we'll sell it.  There are a couple guys from work that usually want to buy it. 

The weather forecast is calling for our first big wind storm tonight and Sunday, so we got these trees down just in time!