Timberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

There are a lot of trees here at Tree Houses (not a shock, that, eh?). And
occasionally they die and fall over. Again, not a shock.

There has been a stand of three that have been a concern for a while, as two of them are around 100-plus feet high and are dead up high. It's a concern because when the wind picks up and the rains are coming down, they could fall over and block the driveway or take out the power lines.

Yesterday, Miguel and I decided it was time to do something about them as the middle one had toppled over during the weekend. It was only about 30 to 40 feet high and was the sickly middle child of the three-tree stand.

It was a nice, sunny, hot day when we started. Not a cloud in sight. It took a while to get a rope tossed over the upper branches to direct the fall of the tree. Then came the chainsaw and the cutting and pulling. Unfortunately, the rain also came along with thunder and lightning.

By this time, we were committed as the trees had notches cut in them and we couldn't leave them like that, particularly in a storm.

Three hours later, in a torrential storm, everything was finally on the ground. There were some cheek-clinching moments, particularly when we ended up on the ground and had to roll out of the way of a falling tree and when some very large branches were hung up in other trees, but everything is now on the ground and away from the power lines and driveway.

Now is the fun part. Cleaning up the mess, which will probably take a few days. Bummer it's too warm here year-round for a wood stove, as we would have enough to get us through a long cold spell.