Tree Removal

When we bought our house, there was a large tree in the front parking strip.  Parts of the tree had no leaves and it looked half dead.  Thomas was talking with the neighbor about removing it.  He told us that the city will do it for free. Thomas decided to go talk to someone at the city offices about it.  He planned to go after work.  Before he got a chance, someone from the city knocked on our front door and asked if we wanted that tree removed.  Its roots were pushing up the sidewalk and the gutter and the city wanted it taken down.  

 We were glad to see it go.  The city did the work for free.  Thank you taxpayers.

The city came with their boom truck and cut it down with a chain saw.  It told Seth they were going up in a bucket to cut down the tree.  He got confused and kept saying "Look at that guy in the cup." 

 Seth must have thought it was better than TV.  He watched every moment of the work.  He even threw in a few oh's, ah's and look at that's.

 This is what they left us with.  No more tree, just a massive stump.  That's when the real work began.

We dug around the edges, chopping roots as we went.  Some of the roots were only the size of a baseball and Thomas cut through them with an ax in one or two chops.  A few were larger and took more effort to remove.  The largest was the size of a basketball.  It took Thomas an hour or so to get it out and took his hands to brink of blistering.  After the sides were all exposed with dirt and roots removed about twelve inches under each side, we brought in a truck.  One of our neighbors was kind enough to use his diesel truck and a chain to yank it out.  Hearing the crack of the roots and seeing it move was a great feeling. 

Now all that is left is this giant hole.  We'll start filling it in and tamping it down.  Thomas plans to make a driveway where this tree once was.  We'll let you know how that goes.