Back in June, Mother Nature got cranky and slashed a big 60 foot pine tree down the center with a bolt of lightning. It's been quite a process cleaning up. Today was the final step in the journey. The heart-breaking process of cutting down the half of the tree that remained standing. I really loved that tree. She gave my yard a sense of being a sheltered nook in the woods. Now she's gone. It was a fascinating process to watch and being me I took almost 300 photos. Obviously I can't post them all here but I've put them in an album at Picassa for anyone interested in looking through them. A fair amount of repetition, but still, I think they give a sense of the process... and of the terrible blank space left by this giant living being who has blessed my eyes every day for the past three years. All of the pictures below can be viewed full size if you click on them.
I've skipped a lot of steps, but hopefully this gives you the idea.... They actually kind of tie themselves to the tree as they move up, cutting branches off as they go.
As the branches came down, they carted them to the chipper and made short work of them...
And down she goes.... the last green....
When they got to this point, to make sure the tree came down in my yard, they tied a rope around it, cut a big wedge out and then pulled int down in the direction of my yard.
I couldn't believe how fast and efficient they were. They worked like a well oiled machine, clearing as they cut. They started at around 8:30 or 9:00 and were pretty much done by 1:00. Wow.
My new sky line... So different and empty. Apparently the people across the street feel the loss too. I hadn't thought about it, but a 60 foot tree impacts their view too.
