Mother Nature saved me $500 this week, but also created a lot of work.

Shortly after we bought our house almost seven years ago, one of the men who grew up there stopped by and told us he planted the pine tree in the front yard when he was a little boy. His brother had also planted one, but it died. So this tree was like part of the family.

Over the years we noticed that every time it would storm, there would be more and more limbs falling from the tree. But we didn’t have the heart to cut it down. Then a month or so ago, the tree began to noticeably lean. Everyday it seemed it was leaning a little more, and fortunately it was falling away from the house. 

My husband Charlie talked about enlisting the help of his buddy, Will Kinton, to cut down the tree. Melissa and I were not too excited about this idea. Will has helped us cut trees before, so I know he is handy with a saw, but I still had visions of one wrong notch sending that huge tree into my living room. And, we didn’t want Will to lose a limb with a new baby on the way.

Eventually Charlie bought into the idea of hiring someone to cut down the tree. One person gave us an estimate of $500. 

Last weekend I was out of town when my phone rang about 10 o’clock Saturday night. “This can’t be good,” I thought.

Charlie had just finished watching a movie when he heard a loud crash. The tree had fallen. Considering the size of it, I’m sure it would have made a noise even if no one was there to hear it.

All week I looked at that tree knowing the day would come we would have to cut it up and clean up the mess in the front yard. So, Thursday night we both got home from work early to tackle the job.

Charlie would make a few cuts with the chain saw, wrap a chain around the limb he cut, and pull it out with the truck. It looked like he was accomplishing a lot with little effort. Then he would sit down for a while to adjust the chain on the chainsaw. It seemed like the saw needed a lot of adjusting.

In the mean time I was making a gazillion trips from the tree to the burn pile dragging limbs and picking up twigs scattered all over the yard. Do you know how many little limbs are on a pine tree? It was during all this I “wrote” my column in my head and hoped I wouldn’t be too tired to type it when I finally got to go inside.

Did I mention we were doing all this on a nice steamy 85-degree afternoon with humidity so thick you would practically see it in the air? The only relief from the heat was when I would pick up a limb that had fallen in the creek and the soaked pine needles would shower me with murky creek water mixed with pinesap.

Eventually something really did happen to the chainsaw that couldn’t be adjusted, so we got to call it a day. But, there’s still half a tree waiting to be cut up and moved. At least there is cooler weather in the forecast for next week.

mia.rhodarmer@advocateand democrat.com |337-7101