Tree or no tree

A point of discussion, for a while now for us, has been ‘what should we do about the tree growing at the back of the barn?’ So when Chris & Louise arrived, we were very open to hear their thoughts.

Chris told us it was an Elder, effectively a very large weed! And one that was decaying. We had noticed a number of dead branches on it, which we’d suggested needed removing. Chris went one step further and suggested we could cut it down, before it became a problem.

I’m not a fan of removing trees, but Brian showed me where some fallen branches had broken some tiles on the barn roof. So after some careful thought, and the realisation that I could replace it with something much prettier, the decision was made to remove it.

Chris soon jumped into action, ably assisted by Louise. All he needed was a bow saw and rope. The main concern was it falling onto the barn roof, but he had a plan for that.

First he needed to remove all the smaller branches, anything low down which could be easily reached.

He then tied a rope to the main upright and got Louise to stand uphill and pull on the rope, whilst he cut the trunk.

A good pull on the rope and the tree fell as planned. Hoorah!

One of the great things with our Workaways was that they knew how to tidy up, and it wasn’t long before they were cutting up all the debris, loading it into the trailer. Then we had lunch, before heading to the déchèterie to get it unloaded.

Great work. I couldn’t believe how much better the space looked without it. There was a small prickly shrub growing below it, I think it’s called a mahonia, which now has room to breathe and show how delightful it could be. We are going to leave the stump, as the bees and butterflies will still enjoy the ivy left growing on it, and there’s lots of grubs for the birds in the centre of the rotting trunk.