Here are two views of a tree that a friend and I are going to take down tomorrow (Dave Materna–he's a teacher, writer and musician, not a lumberjack). My wife and I live in the middle of a couple of acres of woods. You might think that means it's maintenance free–not so. Over the years we have lived here, we have had several windblown or lightning struck trees down, often across the drive. A couple of ice storms cost us many trees and parts of trees including a fairly big hickory that fell on our deck. Sometimes I take care of it all with my chain saw and other times have to call in professionals. One tree within twenty feet of our house required a crane for safe removal. This particular tree up and died for reasons of its own and I need to get it down before the weather topples it at an inopportune time (like when I am walking out to the road for the paper or mail). We leave many dead trees away from the house or drive alone for the benefit of the woodpeckers. If you click on the picture of the trunk (right), you will see big holes in the other trunk to the left. Those are the result of a pileated woodpecker harvesting ants. Pileateds are as big as crows–quite spectacular (picture above). Dave and I will tackle this one and a couple of others tomorrow. The challenge will be having them fall in the preferred direction and then cutting them into firewood-size chunks that will be stacked. The branches will form a huge pile and I'll need to rent a major league chipper later to turn them into mulch. So, I'll let you know how it goes.
