I had surgery last week to remove an uncooperative plate from an old broken wrist (technically, old broken arm at the wrist). Let me just say that wrist surgery does not a garden make! Meanwhile, little green seedlings are sprouting their heads out of the ground and looking around, wondering why all this dead brown stuff is still in their garden and not off to become wonderful composted nutrients to feed them later. Alas. Well, the bandage comes off on Wednesday, and hopefully I’ll be able to build my wrist strength back in due order to make some progress on the yard.
Meanwhile, my husband was looking through old files and ran across the video of the dead hackberry we cut down in 2008. It had been leaning precariously toward our house, and we decided that we better remove it ourselves before a gust of wind did it for us. The felling of the tree was pure science in nature, literally — ample calculations and measurements and planning were required, as there was only one ideal direction for the tree to fall, and other options would be nothing short of disastrous for our house, our other trees, my husband’s body parts, and potentially our car and so forth.
Even though the video footage mentions the power lines above, I should point out that the tree was in no actual danger of hitting the wires — there’s much more yard there than it looks from across the street.
Eventually, we removed the stump and roots and added them to our bird brush pile, and in the Hackberry’s place grows a Yaupon for the birds. The front of the house now sports a young wildlife-friendly garden as well as a new paint job, so it looks very different now. But it’s so much fun to go back and see the tree that sprouted a garden.
FYI, in the video, I’m the driver in the car that was tied to the rope that was tied to the tree that was our DIY insurance that the tree fell on neither the house nor my husband. My husband was the one with the chainsaw. Our friends by the car were there to lift the giant tree off my husband in case he, uh, made a mistake in his calculations. And another friend, very pregnant that she was, was in the neighbor’s yard videotaping and watching with our kids. We were all about safety first!
That was way cool, Meredith. I love the shouts of jubilation from your kids. Your husband is to be commended… that tree seemed to fall perfectly from my perspective. Great post!
It’s my understanding that, if not overdone, gardening can be used to build wrist strength! Be sure to get your doctor to subscribe it.
Meredith: Sorry to hear about your wrist and need of surgery. I hope it heals fast! Yikes, it must have been hard to watch the tree felling! But glad it all worked out OK. Take care, Beth
Hope your surgery was successful and your wrist will be healed and strengthened in short order! Spring won’t wait, after all! There’s diggin’ to be done 🙂 I’m in the same boat, so I “feel” your pain. Patience seems to be the order of the day while we wait for recovery. Whew! on the tree felling!! Precision! I’m impressed.
Thanks, everyone! Bandage comes off today. I’ll look like I have Frankenstein’s arm for awhile while the scar heals, but it will fade in due course.
The tree felling was fun and went perfectly — my husband’s calculations were spot on!
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