Impromptu Field Trip

Today was supposed to be our “Friday Y Day” and we were all dressed to go shoot some hoops when there was a knock at the door. It was a young man telling me he was from the tree cutting company to cut my neighbors tree and they wanted me to move my car to keep it safe from falling limbs. This somewhat perplexed me as my driveway is right next to my house and the same limbs that could fall on my car would only have 2 feet to fall on my house, but I moved the car. I must admit, I was concerned about leaving the house and decided to stick around a bit to see what safeguards this company would take to protect my house.

IT WAS SO FASCINATING!!

We actually moved our chairs out in the front yard (under the protection of our very large pine tree) and watched them take the tree down. They were very skilled and in fact, my kids actually applauded a couple of times as there was some impressive bouts of team work to be seen. We learned that the tree was a Silver Maple and it had very heavy limbs that someone had years ago put chains around to keep the limbs from falling. Well those chains had grown through the tree making the limbs very week. We ended up watching for the whole thing; actually made sandwiches and ate outside when the guys took their lunch break.

I was very impressed with this tree company. The owner was on site and actually did the tree climbing and cutting. The guys did not use fowl language at all and it was not that they had to censor themselves… They just didn’t. In fact, they shouted such great words of encouragement and praise to each other that it was a teachable moment for the kids. They owner came over to talk to us to tell us about the tree and how he got started in the business. The guys offered us free wood and cut it up into perfect size pieces for us.

I took over 60 pictures and about 5 videos. I will share just a few here.

We will miss that old tree, the shade it provided and the shelter if offered to birds and squirrels. I do however feel safer knowing that the next ice storm will not invite that big ole maple into my living room.