Down they come....

Last year we had a nasty lightening strike in the trees near the house.  WAIT, make that 2 years ago!!  Wow, time passes quickly!  So, two years ago, we had a nasty lightening strike in the trees near the house.  Not only did it eventually take out a total of 5 trees (who by the way, had survived the tornado of 1985!) but also took out my new front-loader washing machine AND (God forbid) the receiver of the DISH network!!  It was a sad day at the Oswald house, let me tell you.  We are fortunate that no one was hurt, nothing more than those two electronic items were damaged and we all know it could have been worse.  However, the result 2 years later is 5 trees that need to be cut down.  They are already dry and brown and crunchy, so they would have been degrading as it is.

This is one of the jobs that the Mad-Accountant revels in.  Of course, as many of you know, he is a well loved and trusted member of the community (and I sincerely wish people would stop telling him how wonderful he is, it makes it very hard to live with the guy), but he is a lumberjack wanna be.  And a farmer wanna be, etc.  He loves being outside every moment he can after he sheds his accountant clothes and dons the denim, basically is doing something every moment from after supper until dark. Which leads to fairly uneventful evenings, but I digress....

So this night being no different than any other, found the MA outside with chainsaw in hand.  The first of those 5 trees was going down tonight.  He was gracious enough to wait for me to get back from my walk before cutting down the first one- I am sure he knew of my need to photograph the whole thing.  When I got home, he was already working on the stub of the tree that had tipped over in a storm this past winter.

You can count the rings if you want to!  Let me know.....

This is going to really change the way the yard looks when it is done- those trees have been familiar friends to me.  There **WILL** be a few other changes in the landscape that will certainly improve things, but I will leave that until the event actually happens. <insert dramatic music--duh duh DUH!> It is amazing how you can become attached to a tree or a group of trees, but that is me, I guess.

Beginning the wedge cut

You can see the first cut complete- and is beginning to work on the high cut in the back

Anyway, back to the chainsaw- after the limbs of the tree are all zipped off, then the largest portions are measured in 100 inch pieces and cut.  100 inches is the size that a pulp truck needs the tree parts to be, if that makes sense to you.  Once that little tree was down, it was time for the first big one.  So apparently, the MA is getting pretty good at this tree felling thing, as he told me exactly where he was going to put it and that is where it went.  I urged him to avoid one little dead birch tree that I knew had a nesting nuthatch in in, and he did.  We all understand though, that trees often have a way of going down the way that you are not expecting, so I really was prepared for the little white birch to be mooshed.

And down it goes

Notice the intact white birch tree in the back ground.- one relieved little nuthatch is in there!  

Jacpot was not amused!  The ground shook when it landed and the horse tore off across the field

So now the BIG job of limbing begins and unfortunately if you are hanging around, even if you are the official Mad-photographer, you are pressed into service.

Y'all can count these rings too!  Let me know!  lol

First brush pile

100 inches

Yes, it was chilly, and the mosquitos prompted the full body fleece!
That trailer is just one of the next things to go!

So, yes, there are 4 more trees to go down.  I hope they are as easy to deal with as the first 1.5 were...   All because of lightening.

And of course, you KNEW that there had to be some artistic shots!  And you would be right!

Everything zen

You just never know what sort of adventures life will hold for you!  Be prepared and be on the look out for some joy!  AND be a joy giver- someone will appreciate it... mwah