Ted and I were working in the back yard last week and noticed that one of our redbud trees wasn’t looking good. It’s been failing for several years, and we had a major limb cut out of it a few years ago. Last week’s inspection revealed the base of the tree looking so rotted, we were afraid a spring wind storm would blow it over. It would then hit (1) our storage shed; (2) our pool fence; or (3) our neighbor’s sunroom windows. Every option would require a repair. Ted called the tree company and they came to the house today, chainsaws in hand, to remove the 31-year-old tree.
Men at work. They cut the main limbs away, one by one. Two guys held a rope around the soon-to-fall limb while the third guy cut it off with his chain saw.
The final limb bit the dust, guided just to the left of the neighbors’ sunroom, and is lying on the ground. No more redbud tree; no broken windows.
This is the rot Ted and I saw at the base of the tree last week. The other side of the trunk looked the same.
The inside of the tree was mostly rotted away at the base, and the space was filled with leaves. Squirrels at work?
When the cutter sliced the trunk into pieces that could be carried to the truck, the slices broke into chunks instead of holding together as a single unit. The cutter’s comment: “That’s not good.” He said it was a good thing we had the tree removed, because it was definitely going to fall down very soon.
The last step: recycle. The tree is now mulch and is ready to enrich the earth from whence it came.