Yard Work

January is a cold time for yard work. It just so happens that our backyard oak tree has finally been condemned and today is the day for half the tree to come down. Why pick today you say? It's because the half that is coming down hangs over the neighbors' yard. Our neighbors moved out yesterday because the bank would take possession today. This was our chance! Our thinking is that we'll have a small window to get this big branch down without anyone making a fuss in the more than we'd like to admit likelihood that it falls on the other side of the fence.
John gets out the rope and ties a weight to the end and throws it (many times) up into the tree and wraps it around one of the branches. The goal is to pull the heavy branch, as it falls, onto our side of the fence. Now, with 25 feet of branches above the chosen cut spot (which is 15ft above the ground) it's going to be a very tricky thing. It is really all about timing. Sadly our timing was off in many ways.
First the chain kept coming off the saw, which created a much more lengthy project. Secondly due to a slight distraction, I failed to notice the slack in the rope as the branch shifted right before it fell. Once it was going down the darn thing was so heavy there wasn't much I could do to change the trajectory of the fall. Thirdly the branch fell into the neighbors yard, scraping the roof and brushing electrical wires and breaking a fence slat just as the bank contractors were parking in the driveway. They came very quickly into the backyard to see what was going on.
John was very apologetic to the concerned men. VERY quickly we had the clippers clipping and were working to get the branch back on our side. Probably 10 minutes later we had the branch out of the neighboring yard. The broken fence slat was the only evidence that anything had happened. Thankfully the kids worked hard and we had about half of the branches clipped into manageable pieces before our green bin was full.

It is a sad thing for us to chop down this tree. I love oak trees. Growing up on a property covered in oak trees, I have a soft spot for their quiet beauty. When we bought the house we were excited to have an established "non-lame" tree in our yard. Sadly our yard plan failed to notice that the tree shaded our planned garden area for a portion of each day. After a few years, more and more of our garden was being shaded as the tree grew about 2 feet each year. Now we've also come to the realization that the oak leaves are contaminating our garden. All these added up to the sad fact: the tree needed to be removed. It's a two year process, so next winter the rest of the tree will likely come down. I'll miss the shade, I'll miss our tree. :(

p.s. and yes, I'm very aware that I didn't take any pictures of the tree stuff. Please be distracted by the cute kids!