To9morrow at 7:30 am. A big ol’ ash, with roots above the ground. We will have no yard until summer.
Ity’s tearing up our foundation.
Just don’t drop it on the house like my dad almost did when he was cutting down trees in the backyard. I believe the huge douglas fir that narrowly missed my bedroom was the last one mom let him cut down.
Well just make sure that if you plant a new tree to commemerate some big occation plant it far enough away from the house that you won’t have to cut it down too soon becuse it’s tearing up the foudation of you’re house. My grandparents (maternal) made that mistake. The tree that they planted when I (their first grandson) was born had to be cut down before I was nineteen.
No wonder grandpapa was an accountant and no an engineer.
Last weekend was our lumberjack adventure. There’s some sort of blight in this area attacking pine trees. We spotted one in the front yard by the driveway that was dying, plus it sustained a large crack during a recent wind storm. I was concerned about it falling across the driveway and trapping us at home (forgetting that we could open the side gate and drive out thru the back yard…)
Anyway, FCD got one of our chainsaws running (we have 3) and dropped the tree across the driveway and into my forsythia hedge. We hacked it up and hauled most of it to the dump, where it’ll be mulched and given away for free - yay! It broke 2 large branches in the forsythia, but the hedge is so thick, I don’t think it’ll be too noticeable.
There are a couple more sickly pines that are closer to the house than I like. And quite a few more out in the back yard that will only cause damage if someone is walking by when they fall. We may de-pine the yard one of these days. But the next tree targeted is the gawd-awful paulownia in the back yard. It’s too big, it drops sticky pods, and it’s a pest. Plus it’s sitting in the best possible spot for a veggie garden, if it was gone and I could get some sun out there. That’s the plan - veggie garden. This spring. I hope.
I have a lovely ash tree that I fear I’ll have to cut down before long. The dreaded emerald ash borer has been spotted in Marion and Hamilton counties, about 30 miles from here. I can keep the critter out by dousing it with a Bayer insecticide that comes up through the roots, but if my county is quarantined, I will probably have to cut it down anyway.
Once you’re quarantined, you can burn the wood yourself, but you can’t move it anywhere else. There’s a big gap on the map between where the bug had been and Hamilton county. The state guys are guessing the borers got there in wooden shipping pallets made from infested ash wood.
Eventually, the little green bugs will kill every ash tree in the US.
Ashes, Ashes, All Fall Down.
Oh, c’mon, someone had to say it !!! Be careful, remove anything from the circle it could proscribe if it falls in a different direction than you think it will fall ! Please wear protective eye-wear too.
How big is it? What will you do with the lower trunk area? Have you contacted a local lumber yard or put out the word to those folks who adore massive chunks of tree for art or furniture creation?
What will you be serving? If you start at 7:30, and finish before the morning goes on too long, you could do a hearty and gratifying breakfast of flapjacks, crispy bacon, scrambed eggs with bits of smoked gouda stirred in and piping hot coffee.
I’m just sayin’… 
Be safe, and have fun.
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