Monday, July 21, 2014

Lumberjacks for a day.

Sadly about a year and a half ago the mimosa tree beside the house died. It stood three stories tall, occupying the narrow space between my neighbor's row home and my own. In the spring it would attract hummingbirds with its pink wispy flowers. Since it's demise, the tree has struck a depressing silhouette in nearly all the side windows of the house, a reminder of the many things in life undone. Until last weekend.
The dead mimosa tree
Two of the students who work with me at the lab came over to help fell the tree. We used a pole saw tree trimmer, working from the top down. From the third floor of the house, we lassoed the larger branches of tree. One of us would hold a branch with the rope from a third floor window while the other two sawed it off from a second floor window. Then the branch would be lowered with the rope to avoid clipping the various lines running between the alley and the house below.

After finishing the upper branches, we sawed off the larger lower branches as my neighbor and his guests eyed us nervously from various windows. Finally it was time to take down the main trunk. We had fun with this, using the old axe left in the garage by the previous owner.


Timber! We used a saws-all with pruning blade to make quick work of chopping up the branches and trunk. One more thing done!


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