It's Got To Go

A couple of days ago, I was chatting with my next door neighbor, Mrs. Newman.  Somewhere in our conversation, she said, "You've got to do something about that tree."

"What's wrong with it," I asked?

She was concerned that one day the tree would fall over.  I thought she was just being a worry wart, but the next day, as I was driving home from work, I saw just how far over the tree was leaning.  I realized she had a point.  I called a licensed, bonded, and insured tree guy.

He came out today and looked at the tree.  I was hoping that maybe he could just take a few limbs off, or top the tree, but no.  He said that once they get that big, the only thing to do is to cut it down.  Boo.  I hate to lose that beautiful old tree, but I'd hate even worse if it fell on the house.

The tree guy -- Josh Costilow, for any locals who might need tree work done, he came highly recommended -- showed me in the back where the roots have already started lifting the ground up.  The ground is pretty soft because of all the rain we've had, so as soon as it dries up some, he'd going to come and take the tree out.  I said if it were just my yard, I wouldn't worry about ruts, but since he's going to have to drive through the Newman's yard (we went and talked to Mr. Newman, and he said it'd be OK), I want to wait until it's good and dry.  I don't want to be responsible for tearing up someone else's yard -- especially as hard as Mrs. Newman works to keep it nice.

Then he turned around and saw this tree.  "If this were my tree..."  he said, so he's going to do some work on it, too.

Take some dead limbs out, and prune it so the air flows better.  I'm going to ask him to leave some of the limbs from both trees for me to cut up for firewood.

The bad news is, it's going to run me about $1500.  Anyone want to set up a GoFundMe account for me while I go beg my supervisors for some overtime?