We have been Christmas-fied !
Unfortunately it’s the end of a long weekend, a welcome break from work. Thanksgiving! Always the last Thursday in November and also the start of a 4-day weekend. As tidal as the oceans; a mass-exodus of people head away to family to spend Thanksgiving day and almost as soon as they left, the returning Sunday tide heads back to where it all began.
As traditional as the day itself is traffic, The Macys Day Parade and over-indulgence!
This year was a fairly low-key affair compared to last year, but certainly no less warming and welcoming as we spent Thanksgiving day on Thursday with Brian and Lee-Ann.
Friday; unfortunately, as the stock market was open, Jen had to work half-a-day. In the afternoon we chilled out a little before her friend Lyndsey came over for the evening.
On Saturday Janice, Greg and Taylor came over for Thanksgiving dinner at ours. Hats off to Jen as she did a sterling job of brining the Turkey, it tasted SO good! Also top marks for the Yorkshire Pud’ and Roast Tattie’s! As you can tell our Thanksgiving dinner is a little non-traditional, instead a blend of tradition and English! It was fun introducing Janice, Greg and Taylor to some Yorkshire Pud’, roast tatties and Christmas Pud’!
On Sunday and continuing with tradition, we headed out to Jones Farm with the dogs to cut-down our tree. It’s always a fun day out. The weather was perfect and incredibly mild, the sun was shining and there was hundreds of trees to choose from. After finding one, chopping it down (no-chainsaws this time!) and driving home we set it up in the house and put the lights on. Seeing a glimmer of Christmas Jen got all the decorations out and officially Christmas-fied the house. It looks awesome!
The Tree Finally Falls!
O! man… what a tree! The week finally passed and my leg had healed enough for some serious mucking around. Like a kid at Christmas I woke up early on Saturday and headed straight down to see my buddy Jose at SSR Equipment so he could set me up with some Chainsaw Chaps and, after talking about snow blowers, headed home determined to fell this tree once and for all.
I began by clearing up a little what we’d already managed to bring down and earlier that afternoon Greg and Janice came round.
Try as we might the tree resolutely stayed fast. Solid as a rock. Later that evening Brian came round with some lorry ratchet straps and still she would not budge!
After trying time and time again into the first 10 minutes of darkness we decided to give up for the night and spent the night laughing over dinner and wine.
The next morning we woke with Greg and I determined to bring the tree down. After a quick race around with me Radio Controlled car, Janice and Greg arrived earlier in the morning; this time Greg was armed to the teeth with chains and a 2 ton “Come-Along”
After we’d attached the chains to every other standing tree and cranked the come-along tight enough to use the chain as a tight-rope she still didn’t fall. We’d been at it since 10am and it was now 2 in the afternoon. Getting more and more frustrated I decided to make some ballsy cuts to take out the smaller tree that the larger one was resting on, as it turned out it really wasn’t, and the smaller one parted the way.
Once more we setup the chains and come-along and cranked it so tight it must have been close to 2-tons of torque. Still nothing. Prior to this I’d made some more cuts in the larger tree to try and get her to crack under tension and fall, but nothing. Just as I was considering making another cut she cracked, a dull crack, then more, louder, I put the saw down and ran. Higher up the trunk the shear tension had caused one of the larger branches to break and it was just enough momentum for her to buckle and gracefully fall to the ground. A massive cheer and a sigh-of-relief and she was down.
I spent the rest of Sunday afternoon clearing up a little before wearily taking a shower and collapsing in front of the TV.
Tree Felling and a Trip to the ER
This weekend I have a new found respect for trees. Like mountaineers who hold a silent respect and appreciation for their summits; I look at trees with a healthy respect for their towering majesty and immense power. They are big, they are heavy, and some are just brutal to fell. Like a great king coming down from his thrown they wield authority until the end.
During one particularly bad ice-storm last year one of the bigger trees split clean in half down her trunk; held together simply by her root system. In heavier winds she would gently creak as the wind rocked her back and forth. Normally I would leave nature to take care of such things, but unfortunately it sat a little too close to the house, so this weekend Greg and I decided to try and bring her gently down. With elaborate roping systems for tension and, on occasion, a helping hand from Greg’s Envoy we managed to safely bring down the hardest branches without damage to the house, deck or anything else for that matter. We left the easiest until last, or so we thought. It proved to be the hardest and would result in me taking a trip to the ER.
It looked straight forward enough, it was under tension in the right direction, down-hill, away from the house. I made a clean wedge facecut and then began the back-cut, she started to fall, all 60ft, a resonating crack as her years of growth bowed gracefully. Then the problems began. She twisted on the way down to rest on point which would take a good half-an-hour with a sledge hammer to set free, then she caught another tree on the way down and failed to fall, resting neatly on a younger tree.
I bucked a couple of sections off to lighten the load, but still no joy. In the end we decided to sacrifice the younger tree to bring her down. The younger tree was only 12″ in diameter so I decided not to make a facecut, simply take a notch out the back and let her crack to control the decent, she was pointing downhill with the weight of the larger tree on her so direction was guaranteed. As the younger tree cracked, I’d listen to see if she would continue, and then edge her a bit more, each time killing the saw and moving back. On my last nudge though she cracked hard and the saw kicked. I moved back to a safe distance not realizing the saw had partly kicked into my leg.
I looked down to notice I’d shredded my Eddie Bauers. Greg and Jen looked decidedly green, fearing the worst. After I ripped open my trousers to expose the wound I realised it wasn’t too bad, I was lucky! We called Brian, an EMT friend just down the road and he cleaned me up before heading to the ER.
There Jen and I met Jay a sound PA (Physicians Assistant); 1 down from a full MD, but just as effective. The spitting image of Tom Cruise he hit me up with some Novocaine and we were set for some stitching. As he prodded the needle into my skin asking if I could feel anything I simply marveled at modern medicine and thought about the old days where you simply had some whiskey and bit down on something hard. It was fascinating to watch and as he worked away he seemed quite happy to let me snap some photos for Facebook.
An hour later we left, myself with a sobering respect for chainsaws. Needless to say, and I don’t care HOW ridiculous I look, I will be investing in some professional Protective Chaps!
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