Elm Trees & Power Lines Don't Mix
One of the pleasures of living in an 110 year old home is
you never get bored. Your home is
constantly surprising you with long kept secrets. Yesterday it was a 50 foot tall elm tree that
was threatening our power lines. Five of
our neighbors experienced downed trees during the last two years and our yard
had been left without their buffer this last year. The old gentleman in our yard was getting
weak at the knees and had already dropped a sizable limb precipitously close to
the house.
Happily here in this part of the US, tree services are
plentiful, and we were able to bring the tired old boy down quickly and gently. Because we live in the Evergreen Historic District
of Memphis, on a 50 X 150 small city lot, cranes and bucket trucks were not practical. Instead, a small band of nimble men equipped
with ropes and chain saws scrambled up into the old man’s arms and brought him
down piece by piece. They were remarkably
fast, like a horde of human sized army ants, taking only six hours to remove
all but a whisper of evidence of the giant that had commanded our back yard for
more than century.
It was an expensive and inconvenient process. We were without power for more than eight
hours. However, we feel lucky that we
did not experience the destruction that our neighbors did when their old
friends collapsed on top of them. While
we do feel more secure in our home, we also feel a bit more exposed without the
old man watching over our back yard, shading us from the brutal summer
sun. Our back yard looks far less inviting, almost
like a family room without a comfy sofa.
It’s easy to replace your favorite leather chair. How do you replace a 100 year old tree? And that’s today’s Back Story.
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