Hackberry Blues

Now that The Big Day has come and gone, we were looking forward to having a quiet Saturday. Maybe we'd watch a movie. Maybe we'd clean the garage. You know - something easy. But mother nature had other plans. Sometime during the week, a thunderstorm rolled through and dealt a blow to the large hackberry tree in the south yard. The resulting split in a big branch gave us just the thing to fill our Saturday.

The branch that was damaged is one of three large "trunks" that form the tree. The leafy canopy landed on the roof but didn't cause any damage. Prior to Saturday, Scott called and made an appointment for a tree service to visit and give an estimate for clean-up. Since they didn't show up or call, we proceeded with Plan B:  "let Scotty do it!"

The first step was to reach what he could with the chainsaw-on-a-stick. My job was to pick the branches up as they fell and drag them to a pile.

Scott then climbed up on the roof to access the bulk of the branches. Yes, he was very cautious and yes, I had my cell phone ready in case of emergency.

Scott was able to reach all of the leafy parts, leaving just a skeleton of branches behind.

Branches are always bigger on the ground than up in the air. We filled the trailer with what Scott trimmed.

Now for the fun . . . figuring out how to pull the split trunk-sized branch out of the way of the house. We needed to be careful since one bad move could send a giant branch and/or a giant ladder through a window.

Scott's plan involved the extension ladder, a rope, and The Ranger. He propped up the branch with the ladder, tied one end of the rope to the top rung, and tied the other to the Ranger's winch.

Then, he floored the Ranger in reverse, pulling the ladder and branch along with it til both were safely on the ground. No windows or houses (or people, vehicles or cats) were damaged with this daring move!

After the bending . . .we were left with an arched half-trunk which was quickly dispatched with the chainsaw. We'll probably still get a professional to assess this damage. Can a trunk survive if it's been sheared in half?

The larger branches were cut into convenient firewood-sized chunks. . .

. . . and hauled to the firewood pile in the trailer. Good job, Scotty! What kind of fun will we have this coming weekend?

Stay Tuned for Our Next Adventure!