04 October 2009
I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK
04/10/09 13:02
If you remember the first year we were in the house we did a Xmas card featuring the huge tree in the back yard. That tree was actually just over the line in our neighbours yard.
This week they hired a company to dismantle the tree. The reason was they were worried about it coming down in a storm and landing on their place. Actually they were more worried it would fall on our place. In reality everyone in the area is happy. We don't have buckets of pine cones clogging the gutters any longer. I can see the night sky in the back yard and our back yard will get a lot more sunlight for the stuff Marsha wants to grow. The neighbours uphill now have a much better view. Everyone is much happier.
The tree trimmers arrived on Wednesday and first started taking the branches off. They were really good. They moved all the stuff in our back yard away from the base of the tree so it wouldn't get damaged. They then dropped a number of the branches into our yard and laid them out to protect our flower beds.
By a little after noon they had all of the branches off and removed the last couple of feet off the top.
The rest of the afternoon was punctuated by RRRRRRR………THUMP, RRRRRRR………THUMP, RRRRRRR………THUMP, as they cut off chunks of the trunk with a chainsaw and let them fall to the ground in our neighbours yard.
The tree was over 75 feet tall and they tried to keep the chunks between a foot and a foot and a half thick so they worked all afternoon and the first half of the next day cutting the tree into bits.
The rest of the second day was gathering and hauling away the branches, piling the chunks in their back yard, and cleaning both of our yards. Afterwords our yard looked just fine. A few dings here and there but overall it's much better without the huge tree overhanging everything. Our neighbours yard didn't fare as well. Here's a picture of their yard afterwords
Here is the same view of the front of the house after the tree was removed.
Oh and on the truck front, we took it into the mechanic to be checked out. It turned out that everything the dealer said was wrong with it (and offered to fix for ~$2500) wasn't. The ball joints weren't bad, the tires were just very low (~19 PSI rather than 40). The cooling system wasn't bad, at all, in any way. The 'electrical problem' that caused the Check Engine light to stay on (that they figured would take several hours to trace), was actually a clogged vent in the gas tank. Overall we had to drop a few hundred into it but our mechanic said it is in exceedingly good shape and now should be a solid truck for us for many years.
Lastly here is a link to a 'serious' problem here in Western Canada. Pirates. Make sure the sound is on when you go there.
http://members.shaw.ca/mickee/blog_images/pirate/last_saskatchewan_pirate.htm
This next Monday, October 12 is our Thanksgiving so we'll be having our turkey dinner earlier than you all.
Take care, enjoy your week and bye until next week,
Doug and Marsh
This week they hired a company to dismantle the tree. The reason was they were worried about it coming down in a storm and landing on their place. Actually they were more worried it would fall on our place. In reality everyone in the area is happy. We don't have buckets of pine cones clogging the gutters any longer. I can see the night sky in the back yard and our back yard will get a lot more sunlight for the stuff Marsha wants to grow. The neighbours uphill now have a much better view. Everyone is much happier.
The tree trimmers arrived on Wednesday and first started taking the branches off. They were really good. They moved all the stuff in our back yard away from the base of the tree so it wouldn't get damaged. They then dropped a number of the branches into our yard and laid them out to protect our flower beds.
By a little after noon they had all of the branches off and removed the last couple of feet off the top.
The rest of the afternoon was punctuated by RRRRRRR………THUMP, RRRRRRR………THUMP, RRRRRRR………THUMP, as they cut off chunks of the trunk with a chainsaw and let them fall to the ground in our neighbours yard.
The tree was over 75 feet tall and they tried to keep the chunks between a foot and a foot and a half thick so they worked all afternoon and the first half of the next day cutting the tree into bits.
The rest of the second day was gathering and hauling away the branches, piling the chunks in their back yard, and cleaning both of our yards. Afterwords our yard looked just fine. A few dings here and there but overall it's much better without the huge tree overhanging everything. Our neighbours yard didn't fare as well. Here's a picture of their yard afterwords
Here is the same view of the front of the house after the tree was removed.
Oh and on the truck front, we took it into the mechanic to be checked out. It turned out that everything the dealer said was wrong with it (and offered to fix for ~$2500) wasn't. The ball joints weren't bad, the tires were just very low (~19 PSI rather than 40). The cooling system wasn't bad, at all, in any way. The 'electrical problem' that caused the Check Engine light to stay on (that they figured would take several hours to trace), was actually a clogged vent in the gas tank. Overall we had to drop a few hundred into it but our mechanic said it is in exceedingly good shape and now should be a solid truck for us for many years.
Lastly here is a link to a 'serious' problem here in Western Canada. Pirates. Make sure the sound is on when you go there.
http://members.shaw.ca/mickee/blog_images/pirate/last_saskatchewan_pirate.htm
This next Monday, October 12 is our Thanksgiving so we'll be having our turkey dinner earlier than you all.
Take care, enjoy your week and bye until next week,
Doug and Marsh