“Now the trees are all kept equal by hatchet axe and saw”
About a month ago we had a tree cut down in the side yard between our house and our neighbor. It was a pretty big tree, an old maple, probably at least 100 years old and about 100 feet high. The problem with it was its location, between our two houses. It kept on dropping leaves and helicopters onto my roof, necessitating getting up on a ladder to clean out the gutters an annual chore. Also, as I discovered last fall, its roots were getting up into my foundation making cracks, and causing drainage issues. For my neighbor John, the tree was also dropping things on his roof, as well as heaving and shifting his driveway, which he wants to repair and widen. But the motivator that finally led to action was that it was throwing shade on his brand-new deck. So the tree had to go. John lined up a tree guy to come over and cut it down. It was amazing to watch him and his crew work: a virtuoso with the chainsaw and cherry picker. Cut it down branch by branch, using ropes to lower the limbs to the ground. I only saw the first half of the work, and then a rainstorm came up and they had to finish another day. That day was the day I was leaving for vacation, so I only saw them lop off the crown before we took off. While we were away they came back and took out the stump, so now all that remains is a nice flat spot.
