death of a willow tree

This shot on the left is one my husband took just a few minutes before the crew began to work on the willow tree. He's standing on the little porch behind the garage and looking down the boardwalk to our little storage shed. The magnificent willow, though, dominates the scene.

I took over taking pictures afterwards and will add a link to my photo slideshow soon. Right now, I want to write about the experience.

When my son called that afternoon, the crew had begun to attack the tree, and I was so emotionally caught up in what they were doing that I could not even talk to him. My husband suggested that I not watch, but how could I not? I grew up as the daughter of a log cutter. The smells of the power saws and sawdust, the sounds, the whole thing, it was having Daddy back briefly. Daddy never climbed up in and around trees the way these guys did (one of them in particular), but he knew how to drop a tree. This tree would have posed a problem even standing alone in a field, simply because the trunk split into two trunks about six or eight feet off the ground. Supposedly that was the reason my neighbor felt it was dangerous. Where the two branches of the trunk joined, there was a hole in the tree that was becoming a rotted spot. (I looked at the tree and could not see that spot, but then, I'm too short.)

I took dozens of photos, including some of the man with the powersaw up in the tree, bracing himself as he took out the limbs. Once the slideshow is up and running, interested viewers can see the precarious positions he took. I noticed when he was on the ground walking that he walked with a limp. His work is dangerous, but he's very good at it. As much as I hated to lose the tree, at least these men were professionals.

It took hours, and even now, it's not over. There's a huge stump remaining that will have to be removed. Several major hunks of trunk are lying on the ground, awaiting being shoved into the maw of the chipper. They filled one truck with chips and sawdust and had to go empty it before they could go at it again.

The ducks in the pond would occasionally gather around to watch, making sure they kept well away from the action. Several branches did fall into the pond. However, no damage was done to any property, other than dents in the earth when hunks of tree fell. One wood chip, a piece of stick about five or six inches long, was jettisoned across our deck and bounced off our screen door. I kept it as a souvenir. I also kept another little piece as a souvenir. I really did like that tree. The neighbor plans to plant a birch in that general spot, and we too will plant another tree. As soon as we get photos of the new plantings, I'll add them to the blog.