Nuts?

The walnut tree wasn't a good idea, but some things I just have to learn from experience.
They are beautiful trees so when I found out that they sprouted like weeds in Mom and Dad's back yard, I decided I would take a sapling home for myself. For years it struggled for light that filtered through the cedar and fir boughs. Then finally after it got tall enough to compete.
It wasn't until last year when its branches reached twenty feet across the yard to brush against the gutters that I realized I had a problem. Even as I stretched from the roof top to cut the limb back as far as I could, I knew that a bigger job was coming.
Of course, this spring it did what plants do. Just beyond the cut, it bushed out. I knew it was time to take out the entire twenty year old tree.
I planned on hiring someone to do it. A chainsaw and a good ladder and good riddance! Then Jerry decided we should put in new windows this year. If I wanted the tree out of there, and I did, I would have to do it myself.
Today was the day. I propped the ladder on the soft ground, avoiding mole runs as best I could, climbed up fifteen feet with my trusty, ancient bow saw, and made the first cut as high up as I could with my arms looped around a branch for stability. It was a lot of work, but the top twenty feet finally twisted off and landed on the house. Because that's what trees do when you cut them.
For the next two hours I used the bow saw and the limb lopper to cut the branches into small enough pieces to haul into the back yard. I still have ten or fifteen feet of tree trunk to cut lower down, but that will have to wait until my muscles recover. Or until next spring, which ever comes first.

Nancy Sherer