DEATH OF A TREE

I had to have a large pine removed from the back of my property yesterday.  Several feet in diameter at the base, it stood about 35-40 feet tall, and was pretty large when we moved into this house in 1987.  It had been struck by lightning at least once but that had only twisted the top.  But now it was looking poorly and I certainly didn't want it to come crashing into the back porch.

If you've never seen this done, it's a little scary to watch.  Some little guy shimmies up the tree with a huge chainsaw dangling from his belt, cutting branches as he goes up.  They're lowered by ropes to the ground.  Then he cuts off the top, and shimmies back down the now bare trunk, cutting off chunks as he descends.  The rest of the crew chop up the wood into manageable pieces for the chipper.  The whole affair took less than three hours.  Here's the sequence in pictures.

AND, they did it without any damage to the row of Hostas lined up a few feet from the base.

BUT, now there's less shade in the morning.  I need to plant some replacements.