Goodbye, Pepper Tree

Friday, November 30, 2018

Bucolic scene? I’d prefer bucolic with cows but this is gonna have to do.

But we digress. No, actually, we get ahead of ourselves. First, I need to show you the peaceful scene (above) from last November where there’s lotsa shade from the south trunk of the tree that we’re saying goodbye to in this blog post. Clothes appear to be happily drying on a line suspended between fence and anchor point on the house.

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Three months later, as I’m innocently starting to hang up clothes I notice the pepper tree branches are even lower than shown in the photo above –– in fact they’re interfering!

Yes, something is very wrong. (Very perceptive Paul!)

Chris and I don’t panic. The philodendron that usually threatens Chris’s head and shoulders as she leaves the garage has been underfoot the last couple days but she doesn’t think much of it. My funky system of suspending the plant between the two pepper tree trunks with baling twine, bamboo and an old seatbelt failed. (My funky systems have been known to fail before.)

How much crunching is going on up there?

Thursday, February 7, 2019

I call the arborist we’d worked with 20 years ago when building the garage. He refers us to a company who actually does work on trees, not just consult, A and J Tree Company.

John (the “J” presumably) stops by about noon to assess. He returns about 4 pm because our tree keeps bothering him. John declares an emergency! He really doesn’t want this tree to shift and crunch the garage any further, so he starts right in trimming to lighten the load on the garage. A couple of other guys soon join him and by dark there is a whole lot more sky visible.

Ooooh! That really doesn't look good! — Ooooh! That really doesn’t look good!
I don’t see any damage from the inside but ya gotta wonder.

How high was that big limb before?
A view into the shadows of the November 2018 photo. That big limb was at least 2 or 3 feet higher than it is today!

Something very familiar about the sound in this 7 second video –– and we will be hearing that sound a lot tomorrow (Friday).

World’s longest chain saw in action on our tree!

Still shot of world's longest — Still shot of world’s longest

Skyline is changing over garage!
Garage has gotta be feeling some relief!

Friday, February 8

Four guys from A & J spend all day crawling all over our garage and our tree — we’re in good hands. What’s more they’re hardworking, cheerful and friendly — even into the grumpy late-afternoon hours (well, it’s that way those hours can be for me!).

They protect the garage by slicing off small-enough chunks of the limbs so they can grab the chunks with ropes or arms or both and move them away from the roof before dropping them to the ground. Homeowners like to see that sort of care.

Garage protection
The other ends of these ropes are on branches still threatening garage.

Garage has been liberated!
You can’t tell from this photo but enough weight has been removed so the trunk has actually lifted back up a few inches and no limbs are now touching.

Six chain saws!
And I haven’t seen the world’s longest since Thursday.

John's son-in-law is the aerial man! — John’s son-in-law is the aerial man!
He’s about to cut some more carrot slices off the trunk. I keep thinking of this approach as gumming the problem to death, but it’s both very simple and very effective, two highly desirable qualities.

Final roof clearing
Some of the sawdust got blown under shingles and I’m hoping that won’t cause problems later.

Raining sawdust
Look at all those carrot slices!

Largest diameter carrot slice I can find

Saturday, February 9

John and wife Victoria are the only ones to appear. They’re here to load the chunks of tree I don’t want and remove them from our lives. Sure is a sweet, little grabber vehicle he’s got and he makes sure, by carefully spreading out sheets of plywood, not to rip up our side yard with its tracks.

On Saturday, Chris and I enjoy meeting Victoria, John’s wife. She’s obviously been at work sites before.

Only tweaked shingles-phew!
These tweaked shingles shown in the center of this photo comprise the extent of our garage damage we can see. Phew! We feel lucky. The tree must have chosen to ooze rather than topple onto the garage.

Additional damage
Our patio area right beside the Pepper tree. The near crack across our bricks has been there for many years, not nearly this pronounced, though. The second crack, toward the center-right in the photo, is new. Even so, we’re not losing sleep over this.

This is stark!
Compare with the shot from last November. The word bucolic does not come to mind now.

Current look of garage and tree
The other half of our tree is still here, and probably more secure, now, but here’s another shot showing a pretty naked garage.

I’m glad damage from the tree is very slight and the cost will be pretty much limited to the cost to remove the south trunk of the tree, but Chris and I really liked that tree and I feel some sadness to have so much of it gone. It was a friend.

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