Tree Removal Pt. 1

Our next door neighbor Pat told us a few months ago that she sold her black walnut tree in her driveway to some Amish woodworkers. They arranged with a tree removal service to take down the tree sometime in the late fall. Well, that time is today.

This particular tree is one of the largest black walnut trees in the neighborhood and has the advantage of being in an accessible location via the driveway. The tree company can get in there with equipment which is not always the case in our neighborhood. We have six black walnut trees in our yard but they are inaccessible from the street and would cost a fortune to take down.

This tree has been a problem for both Pat and us. For Pat the roots have torn up her driveway which she has had repaired many times. For us the tree overhangs our house and drops walnuts on our roof. The tree removal company wanted to wait until the nuts had dropped and the leaves had fallen. Today is a beautiful sunny December day.

Lots of prep in the morning starting around 8 am. First cut was 8:40. The chipper was horribly loud and the vibrations shook our house. The guys from Great Lakes Tree Service were very professional and considerate throughout the day. They had plenty of equipment including a large tall crane like machine that could grab and hold a tree while cutting off branches. It was amazing to watch from our windows.

The original plan was to remove the entire tree in one day. They were also taking down another black walnut tree a couple of blocks away that was going to the same Amish woodworkers. The tree removal people were going back and forth between the two. When the trees were down they would load both of the trunks on to their truck for the Amish.

It turns out they had a problem with the other property and ended up not being able to finish both projects the same day.  They ended the work on our tree in the early afternoon, left the equipment and took away the two truckloads of chips and branches. They left several large logs in the backyard along with the main trunk of the tree. The foreman told me that they would be back to finish the project on Thursday and everything would sit there on Wednesday.