Tree Removal

When we bought our place on Cable Lake 12 years ago, we got 140 mature oak trees in the bargain. I thought it was cool. It turns out that they are just very large weeds, with no socially redeeming quality.They are very messy and require much work to clean up after them. The male part of their sex is a fine green powder that infiltrates everything in the spring.

The female part is a stringy material, like a corn tassel, that falls off
all over the stuff that you just cleaned off the green powder of. They are
all infected with some sort of chronic bark beetle that kills some branches and they fall off constantly and need to be picked up. The male and female activity results in a large crop of acorns, which fall, covering the stuff you cleaned off the male and female part of.

The acorns have a sharp point that makes walking without shoes risky business, and they are always present. They drop half their leaves in the fall, requiring clean-up. The other half fall off in the spring, requiring another clean-up. They shade the lawn so no grass will grow. And on and on.

...........so, as a result, there are only about 100 left. Some were cut for new construction and the new septic system. Some were cut for new driveway. Some fell over in a windstorm, weakened by the bark beetle. That was about $12,000 in damage. These two stood guard over the driveway, sometimes biting those foolish enough to to maneuver a large vehicle in the driveway. Like RV's.

Like dogs that bite, they needed to be put down.

......Here Jake and Jason take a break after triumphing over the first one..........

........Here they are both down. You can see how this opens up the area, making it possible to move around large vehicles. The road straight ahead is the boat launch, so you can see that entering with a boat or pontoon and backing down to the lake was always a chore with those two in the way...........

.......This is the resulting pile of wood. Probably enough to satisfy us and Jason and Hannah for a season or two. They use wood primarily for heat, important with today's fuel prices........

......This shot shows two smaller ones we cut down because they were ill and in danger of falling on something valuable. You can see they were hollow.....

Jason and Hannah split the wood, and hauled and stacked it for drying. No burning it for a year..........

I got the local stump grinder to come out and grind down the stumps. Cost $180..........

He came back and I had some gravel delivered ($125)............

.....Jason and "Bob" came back and did the final grading..........

....And the final result.........

......Se how easy it is to get into the place now? That's the real reason for this 6-week project. So Rex and Mary can camp in the yard in September for part of Beach Bummin' 08!!

See you guys then, we're all ready now!

Uncle Hans