One Way to Remove a Large Tree

I mentioned a few posts back that we had a large pine tree about to fall. It seemed prudent to remove it before that happened. I will show you the entire tree again so that you can see the contrast between the tree in the ground and the tree on the ground. You can see how tall it is compared to the six-foot fence, and of course, it's already part of the way down.

There are many ways to get rid of an unwanted tree. We chose to hire a handyman. What that sometimes means is that a project may take longer than it might in the hands of a professional tree service. It didn't take two men working together long to get the tree cut down, but it's taken almost a week to get all the tree parts hauled away.

I want you to see how large the tree really is by showing you its parts. I guess I had expected the tree to be cut lumberjack style with cuts to the trunk and the tree falling whole. That isn't what happened. It was safer to remove the branches first to make the tree lighter. This photo shows most of the branches that were cut before the trunk.

This is a view from a different perspective. You can click this or any of these photos to enlarge them.

The men stacked some of the branches, though not as many, in the center of the yard, perhaps to make them easier to carry away.

To help you put the size of the branches into perspective, I lined up one of the smaller branches next to this twelve-foot ladder.

My mother planted this as a small Christmas tree. The rings on the stump indicate that was just about 20 years ago, which would have been her first Christmas here. Think about these photos if you ever decide to plant a living Christmas tree, and make sure you have enough room. Take into account that fact that surrounding trees will also grow larger, and that pine trees have shallow roots.

The stump was cut away to ground level a couple of days after the initial cut.

I'm  hoping you will be able to see a couple of the roots in this photo to the right. One of the roots is toward the right between some green leaves about 2/3 of the way down.  The roots are hard to see because they blend so well into the pine needles and shadows. You will have to  click and enlarge the photo to see them. If you follow the line of that root back past where some pine needles cover it, you will get a feel for how long it really is -- about eight feet. It heads back underground at a rosebush.

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