Finally, having straightened out an unfortunate miscommunication with our tree people.  Houses and gardens tend to require a ‘go-to’ list; that is people who you can call to get something fixed: plumbers, plasterers, carpenters, and tree people.  It isn’t that you will need them every year, but you know who to contact when you do need them.

Trees have been a headache for us.  But, I think that this time around we will get the dead wood taken out of the two big oaks by the end of March.  As I told the tree people, it is a bit nerve-wracking to look up at four to six inch diameter, very dead, oak limbs that are fifty or sixty feet up.  Although, oddly, they don’t come down when you expect them to.  Hurricanes, snowstorms, high winds…they don’t come down then.  They do seem to drop on a quiet night.  Go figure.

It should be an interesting process.  The two trees in question are fully mature Black Oaks between 110 and 130 years of age, the limbs don’t start until you are about twenty five feet up and the real crowns only begun above the main house, so about thirty-five feet.  They are 75-80 feet tall with a spread of about 50-60 feet.  Big trees.  This company does not use trucks for this sort of work, because of the problem of soil compaction and root damage.  They use climbers.  I am going to be curious to see how they get one branch in particular: it can’t be dropped, as it is a major limb that extends right over the ridge of the cottage.  I image it will include some ingenious ties and ropes to some of the other equally large trees in order to get it swung off and down in a controlled fashion.

Better them then me.

The trunks of the two oaks in question are shown here:

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