Timber

 Yesterday, Doug was working with his chainsaw in the back lot when he noticed a large split in one of the trees holding up our hammock.  He was extremely concerned as it looked as though the tree had rotted on the inside.  He assumed that the intense storm that we had several weeks ago contributed to the damage.  As the tree was one of the biggest ones on our property and looked as if it would take out the deck if it fell, he wanted to contact someone about it right away.  Thankfully, I had just found the 2018 receipt from Hoosier Tree Service when they took down another large tree for us.  Doug called right away and they came out last night to evaluate the situation.

The owner of the company gave Doug a price estimate and said that he would be able to come out Monday morning to take care of the tree.  He agreed that it needed to be taken down, but felt that it could wait until then.  As there wasn't much in the forecast as far as storms were concerned we were comfortable with his plans.  This morning, however, we noticed that the weather prediction had changed with high winds and a thunder storm now possible for the weekend.  I was concerned, but knew that we couldn't really do much about it.  I had planned on having Cam change the room that he was sleeping in for the next couple of days and prayed that the tree made it that long.  Fortunately, Hoosier Tree Service saw the forecast as well and moved the tree up on the priority level to this afternoon.

The "lumberjacks" showed up after lunch with a 75 spider lift, a large mulch truck and a small vehicle to pick up logs.  It was an extremely impressive set-up.  Cameron chose to watch all of it from his bedroom window directly across from the action. Doug and I instead chose a safe spot across the yard and watched as one worker controlled the lift and moved up the tree cutting off branches along the way.  We were told that it was to relieve weight on the trunk.  He was able to stretch the lift up high enough to take the top out with a chainsaw.   On the way down the tree was cut in sections with large logs falling straight down to the ground.  It was fun to watch, but a little scary for those of us afraid of heights. As I walked around front to see how the chipper worked, I noticed that our neighbor boys had set up chairs on the high part of their yard to watch everything happening in our yard.  It reminded me of Brett and Cal when they were quite a bit younger as they would have greatly enjoyed the large trucks as well.  In the end it took about an hour for the tree to come down and the clean up to follow.  Doug kept the large logs to use for future bonfires.  

When it was all said and done, both Doug and I were completely relieved to have the tree removed.  It changed our hammock area slightly and left a hole in the backyard, but with the high winds today neither of us had to worry about it coming down on its own.  It definitely would have ruined our Ticket to Ride marathon games on the back deck.