Dead Trees Go Down!

The weather cleared, and it was time to take out the dead trees. It is hard to believe that only a week ago the tree strike saga started. The day began with plans to go down and play in the mud with the quads, but then the sun came out, and the wind stopped blowing.

I fired up the Jeep and headed down into the swamp to run a safely cable to prevent any more accidents involving the house and falling trees. I was only half way down the hill when I realized that I was just a big sled on a slide full of mud. It became obvious that the angle was wrong, the cable was too short from that side and the mud was too soft. Now, how to get the Jeep back up the hill. From the point where I came to a stop at the bottom of the hill all the way back to the top, there was not one inch of ground covered without the aid of the winch!

I finally made it back to the top and positioned myself on the on the other side of the house up on the hill and out of the mud. I ran the winch cable down the hill and used a tree strap and pulley anchored to a large (stable) tree and then ran the cable back up the hill to the intended victims.

Todd positioned the tree strap as high up the trunks as possible, to each tree and then attached the cable hook. I spooled in the winch and pulled the trees down and away from the house. Ray would then fire up his chain saw and one by one they all came crashing down as Deb snapped photos.


That is me fighting a losing battle against a blackberry vine, while hooking up the anchor point.

Yup, that is Todd up on the ladder. Trying to get the straps as high as we can.

Ray and I prepping the winch before the pulling can begin.

Todd and Ray positioning the cuts properly so the tree goes where we want it to.

Ray running the saw, like a real man!

Ray running like a little girl!

... And down it goes.

How about another one.

At the end of the day 4 dead trees down on the ground...where they can't hurt anyone!

We trimmed off the stumps as low as we could, and left the downed trees on the ground to be cut up and stacked later for fire wood. Glad to have that little chore done. Now, next time there is a wind storm I can look out the friggen window safely! My thanks goes out to all the helpers on this job, but honesty, getting to drop a big tree and hear it crash to the ground... IS A TON OF FUN!

Credit to Deb for taking all of the photos in this blog article. I am especially impressed with the action shots of the trees going down.

Oh yea, we did get some quad riding in... Don't worry!