Mowin' Down Those Trees Like I'm Mowin' The Lawn

(Milwaukee, WI) - My uncle Dick called me last night to help him with a job. He's an arborist and he's usually a one man sawing machine. This job though was a bit more technical involving thick limbs hanging precariously above the flat tar roof. So he called in the troops (me) to help.

When we got to the job Dickie clamped on his tree climbing foot spike and scaled the first tree. Dickie has skills - his climbing abilities rival those of a nimble lemur. With a couple of ropes and a pair of German-made chainsaws he tore apart 2 50 foot ash trees and a 25 foot mulberry tree in mere hours. It was pretty amazing to see trees that took fifty years to grow get leveled in an afternoon.

It was a fun afternoon and the "workday" really rolled by fast. What made it even cooler was the home owner Percy. The 88 year-old transplant from West Virginia was the kind of guy that you could kick back with over a couple of Mint Juleps and shoot the shit for hours. And the kicker... the guy made us a couple of killer meatball sandwiches for lunch!! Gotta feel bad for the poor guy though. Dick runs a "I cut & you clean" tree trimming business, so he's got about 4 tons of tree to move on his own!

Dickie high up in tree #2.

Swingin' & Chainsawin'

Lumber Paydirt - There were 4 piles of logs like this. We must of felled a couple tons of wood.

Uncle Dickie & Percy.