We certainly hate the thought of removing full grown trees as part of making this property reflect our taste and style. But sometimes it is impossible to not disturbe them and have the home you want.
Many years ago, a previous owner thought that the weeping willow tree was a thing of beauty, or so we are guessing since there were two on the property when we took over ownership. We are guessing, but it looks like this decision to plant what we have come to think of as a weed was made over 40 to 50 years ago.
The further west willow fell victim to an ice storm the first year we lived here and lost a major portion of it's top so we were able to remove all but the stump with our small chain saw. But the front willow was at least 4 feet in diameter and over 40 foot tall, entirely too large for us to handle. So we hired a tree service crew to remove the willow and a silver maple that was too close to the house.
The silver maple was more than likely planted as part of the mid 1970's renovation of the house. It was about 16" in diameter at the base but had been allowed to crotch out three feet from the ground. There was considerable insect damage to several of the crotch areas and this was causing concern that wind damage could result in major limbs falling on the house.
The pictures that follow show some of the major events that marked the early spring removal of these two trees. Little dialog is needed to understand what is going on.
This is the large willow that needed to be removed. You can also see the branches to the right of the silver maple.
The crew we hired is also one of our customers at Crescent Electric and they arrived with this boom truck, a dump truck towing a skid loader, and a pick-up towing the stump chopper. The three man crew went right to work after removing 4 of the dogwood shrubs that we wanted removed.
Most of the tree was removed by using a short chain saw from the bucket. Terry Scharper worked from the outside in removing most of the small branches first so that these could be picked up with the skid loader and moved to the concrete pad by the machine shed. It will be our job to cut up this small brush and burn it off as time allows.
The crew did not move the boom truck once it was positioned, in this shot you can see Terry stretch out there for one last cut. The boom was extended straight out and tended to have a little bounce in it as he worked to get the last of the small branches off the tree.
Once all the big branches had been removed it was time to drop the main trunk. Here you can see Curt using what looked like a 3 foot chain saw to cut all the way around the base of the tree while Larry used the skid loader to put pressure on it.
We have heard many stories of tree removal projects that included find secrets buried in the tree. These secrets are usually nails from tree forts or wire fence material and even metal fence posts that the tree grew around. But this tree held a very small secret, a 22 caliber bullet that Curt hit with the chain saw. I was able to remove a small part of it with my pocket knife. It is interesting that the bullet was pointing straight up, any guesses how this happened? We are baffled!
Larry used the skid loader to load the huge trunk section in the dump truck. It was so heavy that he hearly tipped the skid loader over so they cut it in half and loaded two pieces instead of one.
Click here to see more images of our tree removal project.