The Trees That Had to Go

I promise, I don’t hate trees. I spent far too many years on a dry, windy, treeless prairie to hate trees. But I do hate trees that create navigational difficulties, pose a risk to buildings and power lines, obscure a driver’s view of oncoming traffic, or hide the front of a business. Which is to say, there were a lot of trees at the tea room that had to go.

Poor little house hidden by trees.

This monster black walnut tree created several problems. It had a very large branch overhanging the garage, and was situated between the house and garage, far too close to the foundation of both. It was tall enough that had it blown over during a storm, it would almost certainly have taken out the garage, part of the house, or power lines.

The biggest problem to me personally, was that it dropped walnuts all over the ground, including right at the bottom of the porch steps. Careful as I tried to be, I still managed to roll my ankle badly on a walnut. It took several months for that ankle to heal. That incident sealed the fate of the walnut tree.

Note the black (neon green) walnuts all over the ground.

There were three large, scraggly cedar trees in the front yard. They too had the potential to do damage if they toppled over in a storm, but the bigger issue was that they effectively hid the house. Also, cedar trees smell like cat urine.

There were two more black walnut trees that had to go too. One is hiding behind the cedar tree on the left, and the other just a bit further back.

On a nice fall Sunday, a friend came over and helped John take down the cedar trees. It’s magical how a chainsaw can make a cedar tree smell wonderful! We mulched the branches, and saved the logs to take to a local sawmill.

Our friend suggested we hire professionals to take down the walnut trees, especially the one threatening the garage and power lines. One fine Spring day, they arrived and made short work of them. All told, they took down 3 walnut trees, 3 cedars that were growing between the driveway and alley, and ground all of the stumps for us.

We wondered how in the world they’d take down the monster walnut tree. Turns out, they started by removing all of the branches until it was just a trunk. Then, they tied a chain around the top, and held tension on it with a 1-ton pickup. Once all was ready, a guy with a chainsaw carefully made the cuts that ensured it would fall exactly where they wanted it to land.

I am so glad we hired somebody else to take care of that tree! Especially when we discovered there was some significant rot at the base of it. It really could have gone any time, and this way, we were able to harvest some valuable lumber. Black walnut makes the most beautiful furniture!

It makes for some pretty nice firewood, too!