So April wasn't our favorite month.... On the LAST day of April, I was headed to the barn (to see my neglected pony). I had a smile on my face and relief in my heart! April was over! Surely, May would treat us kinder. I stopped at the P.O. Box. There was a letter waiting for me from the City of Denver. It told me the Siberian Elm in front of one of our places had Elm Disease and needed to be cut down. I like cutting down trees, so I was okay. THEN we drove over and really LOOKED at the tree. I had seen this tree dozens of times.... but I had never REALLY seen the tree.
Denver was kind enough to give us until June 7th and motivate us with a $999 fine. We went down to the City after we got an estimate of $2200 to remove the tree and asked for extra time. Yeah, right!
Tait and I decided that we would work on it every spare evening of May.
Intro: The BEAST!!!
Tuesday was Day 1:
Tait had to climb a ladder to get to a second ladder to cut a "branch." Each branch is bigger than most trees. If you like to play "Where's Waldo," I invite you to play "Where's Taiity" and look for my fabulous husband in pic #3..jpg)
We worked for 2 hours removing the 1st "branch." In 2 hours we were able to fall the monster branch, cut it into logs, and bundle the brush. The logs from this 1st branch FILLED the pick up truck bed. THANKs to Craigslist and people who are already stocking up on firewood for the coming winter, the first soaking wet truck load of lumber vanished.
Wednesday was Day 2:
We worked for 2 hours again. Same as Tuesday. We cut down a branch, sawed, bundled, and Craigslisted logs.
Thursday was Day 3:
We had more time on Thursday. We decided to work 4 hours and see if we could make a real dent in the tree. Well, reality happened and we worked SIX hours... for all of you math folks, this is now a total of 10 hours on this 1 tree. Tait found himself a fancy 32' ladder on Craigslist on Wednesday night and he was eager to give me heart-failure and try it out.
Then I was eager to get the giant "sub-trunk" they grew out of. There are 5 "sub-trunks" on the main trunk, so I was excited to get a BIG piece done.
At this point, we thought we were going to die, and the chainsaw agreed. Mr. Chainsaw was hot, mad, and full of saw dust. So, what now? We had a GI-NORMOUS log in the middle of the sidewalk. Well, our AWESOME tenant tied it to his Expedition and hauled it into the driveway.
I don't know if all Elms are FULL of water or if it is just because this Elm is sick, but this log was DRIPPING water. Like a full sponge. It literally made a puddle underneath, and it has been DRY here lately. For some perspective, that is my boot on on this log/sub-trunk.
Friday was Day 4:
We both felt soooo tired, but Mr. Chainsaw was back in great spirits (Tait cleaned it). So off we went, with our only goal being to clean up from yesterday. In an hour, all we got done was cutting up the sub-trunk from the day before. It was so water logged and heavy that we couldn't get the logs into the truck. That might take a Saturday Craigslist miracle to get those gone!
We were feeling MIGHTY proud of ourselves. Then we made a dire MISTAKE -- We stepped across the street, and put the project into perspective.
You are here:
Eleven hours of work, 3 truck loads of lumber given away, 2 more truck loads of lumber hoping to go away on Saturday, lots of sweat, and 4 days later.... YOU CAN'T EVEN TELL WE STARTED!
We think we have done about 20% of the branches so far. We don't even have a plan for the trunk yet.
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