Tiiimmmbbberrrr!

One of the realities of living in the forest where we are here in Northern California (or as our governator says "Callyforneeya") is that occasionally you have to take down a tree or two to protect your house, car, and property. Some may find that harsh, but it is simply the truth. Take, for example, this tree here. An old, 100 foot cypress, it had more dead limbs on it than live ones, and after years of putting it off, we finally had to have it tended to. We know a guy named Salvador, with some 40 years of experience in tree falling, and we got him to do the deed. Our satellite dish is about 10 feet from where the tree grew, and I asked him if he could bring the tree down with out hitting it. He said "Weeelll, I think sooo . . .", which is his way of saying yes. So he strapped on his climbing spikes, hung a chainsaw from his belt, and started to climb.

After that, well pictures speak louder than words:

Here's our dish, unscathed in the whole process!

At any rate, Salvador is quite a person. sort of a combination artist and acrobat. Truly an amazing worker, and I got it all on film. Here's what the tree looks like now:



Below you see what remains of the smaller (under 10 inch) branches and limbs. His chipper made short work of them, and they will have a second life as ground cover in our back yard.
As for the rest of the tree, well my wife and I have quite a bit of splitting to do, but we'll be much warmer this winter, thanks to Salvador and the old cypress.
By the way, you can't see it in this picture, but the satellite dish is smiling . . . .