Wednesday Poll

bad tree
This poll has nothing to do with politics. I know that’s tremendously disappointing, since everyone is feeling so nonchalant about politics right now, but this poll is about a tree. Ignore the dog staring at me like I’m insane for taking a picture of a tree instead of her. Focus instead on the extremely large tree looming over our house. Yes, I know the shutters are a terrible color. Try to focus on the tree. We live on an almost completely wooded lot. A month ago, a giant branch fell off that tree and nearly clonked me in the head. Okay, maybe the branch was only about 6 inches diameter and it fell several feet away from me, but it was still creepy. Creepy in a “branches don’t fall down without a good reason” kind of way. Since then, very few days have gone by that Doug didn’t hear the words “that tree” come out of my mouth. As in, “that tree is gong to crush the house and hurt the children” or “that tree is going to completely squash the car” or several other equally dramatic and exaggerated scenarios involving trees.

Doug called a tree specialist. I’m sure that the specialist’s job was to give Doug information that would make me shut up already about the tree. Instead, the quote was $650 to try and get the very bad tree removed asap because it’s falling down “sooner than later.” Of course, Doug’s first reaction was that he can take the tree down himself. That option sounds like another visit to the ER to me. So, that brings us to today’s non-political poll.

6 thoughts on “Wednesday Poll

  1. I’m sure that you have noticed, but in the picture, the tree’s top leans over the house. Clearly, this is NOT a job for anyone less than a licensed and insured professional tree faller.

  2. Aw that’s an optical illusion! 🙂

    I took down a HUGE pine in our yard and had a blast. It was probably 3 to 4 feet round at the base and stood taller than most of the other trees in our yard. I climbed it knocking off the branches as I went then brought it down in 10-15 foot sections. That was fun! At one crazy moment I climbed it around midnight and used a hand saw to quietly finish off a section toward the top. It was beautiful being up there above the trees looking out at the stars. Of course, the noise of the section hitting the ground was ridiculous and I decided never to do that again for the sake of my neighbors.

    There is a lot of risk with the tree out front. I honestly believe I could bring it down safely but it will be contracted to a qualified tree faller. We have one quote. I just need one or two more and then we’ll take it down.

  3. Just chalk me us with Steve and Cathy. This is not something to be played with by somebody that is not skilled with this proceedure. Even the “pros” have difficulties at times.

  4. $8500?! I had a huge pine comparable to the one I took out (a little smaller) that was leaning toward the house taken out for $300 and that included trimming branches off of a couple of other trees.. Granted, they didn’t have to do any cleaning. I just said leave the wood on the ground for me to deal with. I wish I could remember the tree guys that did that one. They showed up at my house with a crew and knocked it out quickly. Granted I think my house was their morning meeting and not all the crew stayed but they made quick work of it.

    $8500! That must have been some tree!

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