The Tree

Once upon a time, there was a tall tree in our backyard.



Really tall. Just over 60 feet.

There was an itty-bitty problem - the tree was rather unwell, as evidenced by two branches that fell off the tree. Not small branches, either (nothing about this tree was small), and not during a storm. Nor even a wind. Just fell. One of them took out Calla's play-tent-castle-thinger:



Obviously, this made playing in the backyard a little on the risky side, so at that point, the kiddos were banned from the back. But this meant no playing on their swingset, nor with the new sandbox. Something had to be done, and that something was the tree coming down. Now, in the ideal world, where money falls from the sky like the tree branches, we'd have hired someone to do this. Alas, branches fall, but money does not, and this would have to be a DIY project, which was started before the kiddos and I returned from a trip up to see my folks, but completed the day after we returned.

The crew (the hubby and his father) had already cut into the tree quite a bit. They were hoping to pry it loose. You've heard of Wedgewood, right...?



Well, the chisel is pretty buried in there. Maybe something longer?



Nope. Even had the hubby swinging from the bar, and it still didn't budge the tree. At this point, the tree was held up by a central portion of the trunk the size of two 2x12s. The rest of the trunk had been cut through. Now they wondered what to do...



They had the tree tied off so that it didn't fall toward the house (remember, this was day 2, so they were trying to make sure it didn't drop on the house overnight. I think they were actually surprised to see it still up on day 2, as it had definitely been creaking and popping). It was the rope and pulley that finally did the job - they moved the rope to the back of the backyard, tightened it, pulled, tightened, pulled, and...




The remaining stump is still 7 feet tall. Current plans are to level off the top of the stump and build a platform treehouse, since we do know the stump is solid. Either way, though, the kiddos have been able to play outside again, and they are HAPPY. Mission accomplished!