Road Crew

April 16, 2021

Tonight is a simple thankful night. Sometimes my mind just isn’t engaged; this is one of those times. The day however, began with a gift—We woke up to the sounds of a chainsaw whining away in our front yard. The ash trees are dying from the ash borer beetle, and the ones in our yard are no exception. If there are no wires, buildings, or other obstructions nearby, felling a tree isn’t a big deal—if you know what you’re doing. But when a tree is near the road and there are electric wires nearby, the only way to get it down is with a cherry picker—a cage on a boom truck that lifts the sawyer to the top of the tree so he can take it down in smaller sections. 

Last year we had the main trunk of this particular tree cut down. A friend gave us a great deal to do it for us, and he laid it down perfectly between two grapevines I had planted the year before. The two other trunks leaned towards the road, making their removal a bit of a problem until this morning when the county crew showed up and cut them down, even chipping the smaller branches and leaving the trunks for me to chunk up for firewood. They saved me a bundle of money! I am thankful tonight for these men who were protecting the road from the possibility of a branch falling on a passing vehicle or blocking traffic. Borrowing my son’s chainsaw and peavey this afternoon, I had it all chunked up in about an hour. A couple hours with the splitter, and this dangerous eyesore will keep me warm next winter.