Christmas Came Early for Matt

One day while we were on our way to our land, we drove by a house and saw a tractor and a gathering of other vehicles and people. Since Matt was driving, I got the better look and saw that they had a rope tied half way up this really huge tree and had already cut a wedge in the back side.

















I told Matt they were cutting it down. And based on their equipment, the position of the rope, and the depth(lack of depth) of the wedge, Matt dropped me off at the land and headed back over to the tree people to watch them push a tree down on top of their cars, or house, or a person, because they clearly had no idea what they were doing.

By the time he got back, there was an arborist that had pulled over to watch too. The arborist helped them move the rope higher up the tree. The rope is to help control the tree as it starts to fall. The higher it is, the more leverage/control you have. Oh and by the way, we found out they were cutting it down because it had been struck by lightning and was dying.


















Also this "wedge" they cut was only about 6 or 8 inches deep into a 4ft diameter tree- REALLY not going to do anything! Come on, even I know that and I've never cut a tree down.


















The tree fell without any events and Matt called me to ask if he could have some of the wood. I said "For what?" And he said "For whatever. To split, for firewood, to have sawed into boards."


















(ok we won't have a fireplace after we move, so who is all this wood for?)


















Matt said he wanted it to split and he could give it away.

(He loves splitting wood. I think it makes him feel "old school" like the pioneers who built this country with no power tools.)

"Ok, fine."

The guy needed to get rid of it and we were right down the road. And BONUS! Matt got to use his skid steer to unload them!!(catch the sarcasm?)


















So, the guy brought his trailer over and drove around the back of our house to unload them.

First the limbs:


















Then the trunks:


















































































Here, you can see how much the trailer flexed with weight of the stumps on them. In the previous photos, I watched in a sideshow and you could see the trailer flex, then flex back the other way as the stump fell off.
























































































Matt tried to roll it.


















It didn't move.