THE TREE THAT WAS

When my house was built in 1968, a blue spruce pine tree was planted in the front yard. It has grown very tall over the last 44 years.

When my mother became ill and was house-bound, she would look out the window quite a bit. At least 15 years ago, she complained that she could not see across the street through the thick lower branches of this tree. She called someone and had the bottom five feet of limbs cut off and treated so they would not grow back.

About two years ago, I had a slight plumbing problem and I called a plumber. The plumber said I must have roots in the line and poured two bottles of Root Kill down the commode. WRONG thing to do if you have a tree that you want to LIVE.





The past two years have shown the wisdom of the plumber's bad decision. The tree has started to die from the bottom up. I spoke to an Arborist friend of mine and he came to look at the tree. He said, "Save up your money, the tree is almost dead and will have to come down."





Today a tree service came to ease my worries about lightning striking the tree and causing it to crash into the house or someone's car on my street. The tree man said he and his crew could have the tree down in about one hour, haul it all away, and clean up my yard. He offered to grind the stump, but I wanted it left in the yard as a plant stand. I have two other stumps which I use for that purpose on my property.

A 30-year old former meat cutter-turned tree cutter put on his harness and chain saw and began to climb the tree and make short stairsteps for himself to rise to the top. Once all the limbs were cut off, he went up to tie off the top and start cutting it off. It fell right where it was aimed and the helpers began to chainsaw it into pieces to be chipped or put in the truckbed. Then back down to a level to take out the middle of the tree. It was still tied off at the top of the topless tree. It fell with a thud right where it was suppose to fall. Then the boss took over and chainsawed the bottom section down to a stump.

It was amazing to watch the guys get the job done in such short order and they left the yard clean, as well as the street. I will no longer worry about lightning striking my dead tree which would surely come down with a crash the wrong way and hurt a car or house. THE TREE THAT WAS - IS NO LONGER!