Tree Work, Part 2

Saturday Mr M cut down the tree in the center of our driveway circle. It had a beetle infestation that was killing it, and since we're clearing out the parking area to build a car port we decided to take care of this tree along with the others.

We debated about cutting down a live tree, but it was the right decision- we discovered some rot in the center as well, so between the beetles and the interior rot, this tree only had a few more years anyway. Taking it down on our terms now eliminates the chance of it landing on our house or vehicles if it were to ever fall over on it's own sometime in the future.

rot caused by tree beetles

it fell right where we wanted it

Now that there's a gap in the canopy, there's a lot more sunlight coming through the trees in the morning, but we're willing to trade the lack of shade for not having a tree fall on the house.

In the last year we've taken down four trees (2 dead, 1 dying, 1 alive but dropping branches on vehicles) around the house and parking area, but we don't plan on doing any more, so we're now moving to the clean-up stage. I finished cleaning up the pine tree on Saturday, but we have the other three trees plus the branches from the tree by the shed still to clean up.

We're stacking the branches in a pile by the chicken coop, cutting the trunk sections into manageable sections, and making piles of those logs.

We'll rent a stump grinder to grind down the stumps in the parking area and carport area, a wood chipper to make mulch out of all the branches (we'll spread the mulch around the garden beds and the chicken coop area), and a log splitter to split all that wood. It's really unfortunate that we don't heat the house with wood, since we'll have all this wood to get rid of now. We'll probably list it on craigslist or something.

We'll also rent a Bobcat to clear and level the center of the parking area and the carport area. We rented one a few years ago when we brought in some gravel and widened the parking area. Once we prep the parking and carport areas, we'll then be ready to bring in some gravel, maybe pour a concrete pad for the carport, and then build the carport. We're hoping to get it built before the acorns start falling in the autumn (bringing more hail damage to our vehicles), but it'll really depend on how much time we have.