The Rest of the Story

Nov 4, 2017: One of the big Ponderosa pines in my yard,

with the dead branches trimmed away.

When I wrote the post about my new metal roof and the amazing volunteers who installed it for me a couple of weeks ago, I focused solely on the roof and the work that went into it. However, there was another huge effort those volunteers undertook in my behalf on that first day, and I'd like to recognize their work, as well. It was certainly no less important to me than the roof!

A few days before the roofing project began, one of the contractors stopped by to check things out and mentioned the oak branches hanging low over a portion of the roof in back. I told him I'd be quite all right with having them cut back those limbs if someone brought along a chainsaw. So, on the morning of the project, cutting off those branches was the first thing that happened before they began.

Another big pine that stands about 10 feet from the one

in the first photo, while in the process of also being trimmed.

Once the roof project got rolling along, a few of the volunteers who weren't immediately needed on the roof offered to trim away some of the dead branches on the trees around my house. I was thrilled and gratefully accepted.

My property isn't that big (.35 acre), but it's heavily treed with pines and oaks. Raking leaves and pine needles is a twice-yearly headache, but I do love my trees for their greenery and their shade. Lately, though, I'd been noticing a lot of dead lower branches on many of the larger trees, as well as some heavy branches hanging so low that they were getting in our way. Without a chainsaw of our own, it was really too big a job for Mark and me to handle.

The men got right to work on removing the lower branches from my very tall Ponderosa pines. These were branches that hadn't had pine needles for many years. It was a huge job, requiring tall ladders and a far each. Pretty scary at times, especially with a chainsaw. One of the men, Darny, finally went home to get his pole-saw so he could cut off some of the branches without a ladder. He worked for hours, and it was quite demanding physically. I don't know how he did it!

Notice the fat juniper pine behind the beanstalks

on July 24th of this year, against my west garden fence.

Charlie handled most of the chainsaw work. One of the first things I asked him to do was completely remove a juniper pine that was partially growing into the wire garden fence at the back of the house. Not only do I feel that junipers are the ugly runts of the pine family (unlike my beloved Ponderosa pines), but I also hated that it blocked the late afternoon sunlight from a large portion of my garden. Right next to it was a young oak that also blocked the sun. (By young, I mean maybe forty or fifty years old.)

This stump is all that's left of that juniper pine now!

Charlie was happy to cut out the juniper, right down to a below-ground-level stump. He was less than enthused at the idea of cutting down a healthy oak, though. I agreed; I do love my oaks. They're beautiful and they provided excellent shade in the summer. So I asked if he minded cutting it back, just to let more sunlight through. He obliged and, in fact, cut out much more than I'd expected. 

Since Gambel oaks tend to reproduce from root sprouts rather than acorns (which also fall all over my yard every autumn), they are often found growing close together in clumps. In fact, they can grow so closely together that they almost appear to be one tree with many trunks. Most of my oaks grow in groups like that, including the one Charlie pruned for me. When he was done, he'd removed all but one tree (or trunk) and the lower branches. It will be perfect when spring returns.

Next year, the west end of my garden will get a lot more sunshine!

The juniper by the fence is gone, and the multi-trunked young oak formerly

to its right has been trimmed back to a single slender trunk beside the fence.

At one point, I told Darny the story of the ugly bush in my front yard (which I almost cut down because it was growing through my chain-link fence) that turned out to be an apple tree in disguise. I didn't discover its true identity until several years ago, when Dylan and I were raking pine needles and I was mad that someone had apparently thrown apples into our yard. "Where are all these apples coming from?" I demanded in frustration. Silly me. Despite my second husband pruning it before we got divorced, it still looked like an ugly bush. A really tall ugly bush.

My ugly apple tree-bush, just about to get pruned back.

I mentioned my plan to go online and learn how to prune the apple tree correctly, now that the weather was getting cold enough for the tree to go dormant. Darny recommended that I instead ask Charlie how to prune the tree. He said he and his wife had some trees that weren't doing so well until Charlie came and pruned them, and now they were great. So I did. And as soon as I asked, Charlie headed right to the tree and started in.

The apple tree after its pruning, with half the tree

now disembodied and laying on the ground!

He cut away more than half the tree, which was almost alarming, but then he explained his reasons for doing what he did, as well as what steps I had to take next. I already knew that pruning was important because a tree that has too many branches to maintain has less energy to send upward to nourish those developing blossoms and apples. He went on to point out that a shorter, wider tree with most of the branches growing outward rather than inward is an apple tree that will be easier to pick apples from!

How the apple tree looks today, after I finished

the rest of the recommended trimming this afternoon.

So today I finally went out and finished the job. I used a long-handled lopper to cut away the remaining small branches around both trunks (Charlie had cut out two or three trunks), and then I selectively cropped the upper branches so that they were well-spaced and most were growing away from the tree's center. At last, my apple tree looks like a tree! The only thing I didn't do was cut back the tops of the branches, to keep the tree shorter. That will be a job for someone younger and more agile, such as one of my children... Now, to wait until the warm weather of late spring to see if we get blossoms, and then September to see if we get apples. If I didn't totally kill the tree today...

The north oak tree in the front yard, which I haven't trimmed yet.

Notice the low limbs & small branches sticking out everywhere.

Then, since I was in a "lopping" sort of mood, I moved on to the two Gambel oaks right in the middle of my front yard. You can see in both the photo above and the one below that these are typical groupings of several oaks growing together. I didn't get to the one pictured above today, so it still has a bunch of new trees and tiny twisted branches growing on, in, and around the trunk and the lower part of the tree. A few of the larger lower branches still droop down and get in the way, although Darny took care of a couple of the worst ones when he was here.

Notice how straight-up the left side of the tree appears. That's because there were two really long branches that reached over the fence and drooped low enough to scratch my car when I pulled into the driveway, if I wasn't cautious. Darny was kind enough to get rid of them on my request.

The south oak in the front yard, which I trimmed today.

It looks so nice and tidy now. My OCD is satisfied!

The oak to the right side, though, I tackled with a vengeance this afternoon. It was a much more complex task than the apple tree and I spent about an hour and a half at it, lopping away, often with both arms raised above my head while I strained to cut through higher limbs that were larger than usual. Once, the lopper closed with a snap when the handles were on either side of my head, and it delivered a blow to my right jaw with all the strength I'd been mustering. It's still a little sore, but I guess I know now that I don't have a glass jaw! A while after that, I managed to knock myself in the left temple, and I lost count of the times branches directly above me landed on my head. When I was finished, my hair was peppered with bits of bark, and more had settled itchy-scratchy inside my clothes.

To say that my whole body throbbed by the time I was done would be a gigantic understatement, but the sense of accomplishment I feel now is almost heady. I can't wait to recover enough to tackle the other tree!

Now there's a huge pile of limbs to be hauled away! A few people carved up 

some larger limbs for firewood, loading them in their trucks, but still quite a pile!

I also need to mention that there were three other men whose assistance was invaluable in the tree-trimming effort. While Darny and Charlie chopped branches, these men patiently picked up the fallen twigs and branches all across my yard and hauled them away to a pile in a corner of the driveway. That in itself was physically demanding, and I appreciate them so much!

The fun hasn't ended yet. A group of my roofing-and-trimming heroes were talking in the hall at church on Sunday. As I passed by, one said, "We were just talking about you." "Uh-oh," I replied, laughing. They explained that they're arranging to have the Young Men youth group do a service project, at my home and others, raking up leaves and branches to haul away. The blessings keep coming, giving me so many reasons to give thanks this Thanksgiving and always. God is goodness, and many are the good hands that do His work. I'm deeply grateful for each and every one!