Ebony's Pearls

So, my Zombie Maple shed body parts earlier this week; typical zombie action. One of the blessings about having a zombie tree is that it doesn't want brains. I suppose it might want grains. And water, which it got in abundance this week. It still refuses to believe it's dead and has leafed out very nicely, but it is dead. It sheds huge dead limbs and now the trunk is breaking off as it continues to rot.

edited to add: I'm not really letting the tree just fall apart rotting. I've pruned it down from 70 feet tall to 40 feet tall. It takes time to chop and chip and cut down a huge tree in a heavy residential area. There's nowhere safe to let limbs just fall where they will. It takes either lots of people and power equipment and money (estimates to take it out start at thousands of dollars) or lots of strategic planning and deployment of hand tools (which is what I have) and care when doing it mostly alone. Out in wide open spaces, I could have had that tree down in a matter of hours, and the chopping and chipping could be done leisurely. This maple is too close to my house and my neighbor's, so it comes down in comparatively small pieces..

Today, while I was at work, friends stopped by and did a little something about it.

Here are comparison pictures of the before and after of what they did:

Before:

Rest of Long View of Fallen Trunk
Originally uploaded by nodigio

Long View of Zombie Maple
Originally uploaded by nodigio

After:

Tree Chopped
Originally uploaded by nodigio

What's Left of Downed Maple
Originally uploaded by nodigio

And one of the neat stacks of firewood to split later when it cures a bit:

Maple Firewood Stack
Originally uploaded by nodigio

Now I shall have to build that fireplace I keep talking about.

edited to add: Not only did they chop up the tree and stack the firewood, they sharpened my chainsaw blade and bought a new bottle of chainsaw oil when they used up the last of what I had, and coiled my extension cords back up and hung them where they belong!!!!

I must plot nice things to do for them. A BBQ, maybe? Baklava cheesecake? Costume pieces?

I love my friends.