Timber!!!

   So we finally got tired of all of the cedar needles on the roof and living in the shade.  The week before Christmas we hired someone to take down the big cedar tree in our front yard.  We left the one that is a little further from the house (due to the grandkid swing hanging from its branches). I tried to talk Linda into having both big cedars removed but she wouldn't budge on the one with the swing.  I hired Bill Martin, a bee class alum, to do the job, and a nasty job it was.  The ivy went clear to the top which made the upper half of the tree very difficult.  They limbed the first 50 feet using a bucket hoist, but the upper part they had to do with climbing spurs.  Using the climbing spurs on an ivy covered tree is no picnic.  It took two guys the entire day to take down the one tree.

And the mulch pile grows

This was very difficult, removing ivy as he climbed

The tree split into three tops

The bucket hoist only reached the lower 50 feet of the 100 foot cedar

One more section left to cut

 
   We are quite happy with the results.  Linda loves the improved view and additional light in the living room.  We no longer have to worry about the very large tree falling on our house. I'm delighted with my big pile of mulched up branches and leaves, more than a cord of firewood, and four big cedar logs laying in our front yard.  I expect this to make an amazing difference in our front yard and means we now have room for some reasonable sized trees in the front yard.  Linda wants to put in some ornamental trees while I'm thinking nothing is more ornamental to me than a few more pie cherry trees.

    I have another bee store friend, Mark Salser,  who is going to bring his wood miser portable sawmill to our house to cut up the logs into 1x6 boards.  That is scheduled for tomorrow.  After about six months of drying I intend to plane the cedar boards and turn them into 3/4 inch tongue and groove planks for our ceiling. I know there will be some waste, but I'm very curious as to how much lumber we'll get out of those big logs.  We counted rings close to the bottom and the tree was over 80 years old.  I'll be able to do a better count when I've cleared out the ivy and count the stump itself.