It was a lovely sunny not even that cold, winter day, this past Wednesday...and we had to be cooped up inside. There were 5 intruders, with big noisy trucks, and some of them held long noisy things in their hands...and one of those 5 intruders took two of those long things along with a thick as your arm rope, and a skinnier one too and got in a special basket attached to the front of one of those trucks. That truck was so big, they put a little wooden road down for it to drive on, else it would have sunk into the not solidly frozen turf...anyways not only were those intruders there, they had the big yard gates wide open...we have never seen those gates be opened...because the peeps take us through the smaller sally port. gates...anypaws, when that intruder man was inside the basket, he pushed some knobs and it went way high up! So we found out why it was called a High-Ranger...and what that gang was up to....sheesh, they were there at 830 in the morning.
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A before picture, taken in the late fall, before we had any snow.
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The 'crew' has arrived...its about 830 am.
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Petcretary told us that she allowed those intruders to come into our yard, because they had a big job to do that she could not ever even dream of doing herself or with pawppy...they were going to help her get rid of our big old nasty walnut tree. So down it came branch by branch, limb by limb, slowly and carefully because it was close to the house, and some wires. When big limbs were cut, they were guided down safely with the ropes, and the men on the ground guided them to where they could be dragged to another noisy machine that must have been really hungry, because it ate the big branches and smaller limbs. The bigger limbs were cut into chunks and thrown into a waiting wagon. (Someone is going to have a nice bonfire or fuel for their woodstove!)
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And down comes a big limb...boss is pulling the rope and telling his dude about where to pull it for a safe landing.
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Going up...up...for sawing off another big limb.
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About halfways done...11am.
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Getting there...12 noon.
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Almost done with the limbs....1230pm.
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Petcretary took us outside after a few hours, to let us do our doggy stuff, and then we went to check on those intruders from a safe distance. We got to where the boss man was standing as he guided those men into what they needed to do, and we both sniffed him. I, Benji, decided he needed a kiss! BOL! Then Dalton stood up on is hind legs, and begged him for some chin scritches. Petcretary nearly fainted. Dalton usually growls at all strange men and is known to bite. Wow! That man had a couple of his own dogs and he didn't move fast with his arms, or talk loud, so we could tell he was a friendly dude....and so we scored attention! (We did not go to the other men, they were too busy and had those dangerous tree cutting things in their paws hands...)
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A few moments later and the limbs and branches are all gone...
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They were finally done after about 6 hours of hard work. When all the limbs were gone, and only a tall trunk was left, they put a big rope around it and when the noisy things did their work, the rope pullers did a tug of war with the trunk, and pulled it off the stump. It came down so hard, it left a crater in the ground! And we could feel the earth shake even inside the house! All that was left was a flat stump....about three feet across. Huge! They counted about 60 rings, so that's how old that tree was!!
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It took a while, but tree is gone! 145pm.
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'The Stump'
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Here you can get a feeling about how big that tree actually was.
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They took off the upper part of the stump...230pm...6 hours of hard work!
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When those men and their noisy trucks and gear were all gone, we were allowed back out there, without our leashes! We ran over there and sniffed and made pee-mail, and sniffed some more. Dalton climbed up on the stump, but I, Benji decided I had to inspect the rest of the yard instead...
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Dalton decided it was a good spot for a selfie when they were allowed back into the yard...315pm.
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When those noisy intruders were here, we even managed a selfie!
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That noise is awful...and scary, too.
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When can we go back outside?? I want to play with all those peeps out there in MY yard!
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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| On a very sad note, you may remember that we had a recent POTP
notice...well, now this kitty family truly needs our support right now,
as their Daddy, the 'Can-Opener's' husband passed away on Jan 14th. You
can visit them to offer your words of comfort and love HERE. |
we know all about the noise and the sounds and all day long. over the past few years, we have had 3 trees removed. the 2nd tree, the man in the bucket dropped a limb on the gate, a big one like yours and they had to remove it and order a new one which was a problem because we could not let Jake out off leash until they replaced it. PLUS thousands of dollars cost. your guys did a great job and so glad you got some pets after your long scary day inside... sad to see the tree go. i hope they will make walnut planks for someont to make furniture. one of our trees died, the other one the lighting hit it and killed it. a storm took out the 3rd one
ReplyDeleteThat looked like a big and expensive job, but at least no more problems from walnuts.
ReplyDeleteMummy rather likes walnuts, and trees being cut down always make her sad, but what has to be, has to be...
ReplyDeleteMy goodness...what a project! Uh-oh...you know, this puts you on the squirrels' bad neighbor list for removing a nut tree. 😇
ReplyDeleteWell, maybe, but there are still plenty more walnut trees all around here, and several in the back 1/3 of our yard. Not to mention lots of oak trees.
DeleteGreat selfies!
ReplyDeleteWe're curious. Why was the big walnut tree nasty?
Woofs,
Ollie
It was a black walnut, toxic to may other plants, esp tomatoes and peppers...It was too close to our house and very large, it was threatening the wires for power and cable and the old landline phone...not to mention our house. It also dumped tons of huge walnuts, some the size of baseballs, and even they might break windows if the wind tossed them about like it did last September. We thought we were going to see the tree on the ground...but while it was bent over at about 90 degrees, it didn't break, thankfully or we would have had a dangerous situation with the power lines.
DeleteSome peeps would try to harvest those walnuts, but no matter if they were still on the tree or just picked off the ground, well they were always full of worms...eeuuuwwww!
Too bad it was not an English walnut, they are more yummy and not as large.
Yes its a shame to cut down a tree of that size, but there are plenty more of the same variety and other species in our back woods area of our yard. The squirrels will not starve...
In the early spring we are going to try to find an other tree to replace our walnut, a more decorative and ornamental no-nut tree...and for sure not as close to the house.
Apparently, since there used to be a long line of walnut trees along the side of our property our tree was a 'volunteer', self grown from a nut likely buried and forgotten by some squirrel...and allowed to grow by the previous owners. When we came here about 35 years ago, that tree was only about 8 inches in diameter...now it was at least 3 feet across, not sure of the diameter...I could not get my arms all the way round it!
Wow, that was a big job. We're impurressed that you took selfies too.
ReplyDeleteWoW!!! Taking 6 hours to do all that shows what a big job it was -- Glad the tree came down safely and the coast is clear outside for you to inspect the good work!
ReplyDeleteThat sure was a big project those men did to get that tree down without it hitting the house or your fence. We're so sorry to hear about your friends husband passing away and we'll keep our paws crossed for their family.
ReplyDeleteThat was a big job! But it looks like you had fun when they were done.
ReplyDeleteThat is a HUGMUNGOUS stump isn't it? OH my cat it was sixty years old?!?!?!!
ReplyDeleteNow that was a huge tree! I bet you will be happy next year that you don't have to pick up all the nuts! Are you going to plant something lively to replace it? We love the photos of it being taken down and you guys exploring the stump! Wow, it was BIG!
ReplyDeleteWow! That was a huge job! But I know you won’t miss that walnut tree. Our neighbor has one and it’s next to our house and it drops those big ol’ walnuts and sometimes they hit our house and it’s loud! Cute selfies this week. I like the one of Dalton on the stump. ~Ernie
ReplyDeleteI bet your parents will sleep easier in wind storms now.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely!
DeleteGoodbye Mr Nasty Wall Nut!
ReplyDeleteLuv that stump selfie!
wow dalton you have your own throne now and you can be da king of your garden. we feel alwys a little sorry for the trees but we have to do it to get no bad surprises... we had a whole crew here too for cutting our walnut tree, they had a price we could buy a whole wal-mart for the price of the wal-nut tree... maybe they were nuts ;O)
ReplyDeleteBOL!
Delete(Yup, it cost lots of $$, could have been better spent of our food, but ah well, we don't want to roll in walnuts anymore either...or eat them as Benji sometimes would do...yuck!)
You darlings! That was HARD on you!!!
ReplyDeleteBig trees take a crew to take down!
ReplyDeleteHoping you'll plant another tree or two.
We sure are looking into what would be a good, not too big tree to plant in its place...and I do have several oak and maple saplings in the back of our property that I could transplant...though maples tend to have invasive root systems so that might not be a good choice...Oaks are beautiful...and we have 4 large squirrel planted ones, but then again we will have nuts though way smaller to deal with, LOL! Maybe a nice ornamental tree that could withstand the harsh climate around here.
DeleteBig tree!
ReplyDeleteLooks like a nice place to live and love your selfie!
Lulu: "Wow, 60 years? That's almost as old as our Dada!"
ReplyDeleteCharlee: "Pfft, no it isn't. Dada must be at least 100."
Lulu: "Yeah you're probably right. But still, just imagine how much peemail that server recorded in its rings over those 60 years. But all peemail servers get decommissioned eventually, or else they just crash, and nobody wants that!"
We have added a lot of our own pee mails to that tree and now to the stump...
DeleteOur pawrents are about 7 years older than that tree....imagine what the ancient squirrel looks like who planted that tree by mistake, LOL!
This was amazing to see how much time and hard work goes into this kind of job. We love the selfies. Dalton sitting on the stump saying job all completed. Thanks for sharing. Have a wonderful rest of your day.
ReplyDeleteWorld of Animals Rittenhouse
doodz....we iz sorree ta see that tree go...but...we all sew understand....de stump bye de way iz awesum ☺☺☺
ReplyDeletewe hope pappy leevez it az iz coz itz way kewl ta look at....petcretarry can take lotz oh selfeez with ewe both bye that :)
pipo N minko could tellz ewe ...now therz a grate scrachin post ;) ♥♥
What a hard work to cut that beautiful tree. Sorry that it had to been cut, but it's good to have so many beautiful pictures of it to keep it in memory. Great picture of you on the trunk Dalton and both Selfies of you and Benji are marvellous too😸🐾😽💞
ReplyDeleteIt's quite impressive how they cut a tree completely ! I saw it when we had our wheeping willow ccut which had become a giant and the roots nearly arrived under the terrace ! The secon was an old tree at a friend's house and yes it's very noisy ! At that time I had my 4 cats, they all disappeared except Arthur the white cat who watched !!
ReplyDeleteI always get so sad when a tree is cut down. I bet you are going to miss the shade from that tree.
ReplyDeleteWell, walnuts do not have very dense shade, they are the first to drop all their leaves and very late in leafing out as well...so we might miss the shade a bit, but we do have some other trees that give shade. We plan to find an acceptable replacement later, in the spring; likely a smaller ornamental tree.
DeleteWhile cutting sown a tree is sometimes sad, this one makes sense.
ReplyDeleteIf it fell in a storm it could cause serious damage.
Now, you have space and nothing to block the sunlight ;)
Did you keep any wood?
Purrs, Julie
My email is in my blogger profile(dragonmalyx) contact me
DeleteNah, we do not have a fireplace or a fire pit, we just have a big burn pile at the back end of our yard ...when its huge we ave a bonfire.
Delete