Over half a year later, there are still a lot of us who have tree damage from the October storm of 2011. One of Scott and Anne's trees in the front really didn't make it and they've wanted to take it down. After a good 3-4 months of convincing Anne that we could do it ourselves, we finally got the green light yesterday and went to work.

For some strange reason, my grandpa entrusted me with a chainsaw when I was about 14-15 years old working on his farm. All the way through high school, it was no big deal to go cut down a tree that we needed to remove. With this, I became the lead expert for taking down trees since neither Scott or AP had ever done it before.

So I brought my chainsaw over and we basically had four major limbs to cut down. The first two went extremely fast and soon we saw we were half way done. The only bad part is that we left the two toughest ones for last. The third one was growing in a weird angle, so Scott and AP pulled on some rope while I cut the limb above my head with the chainsaw. Probably something that you're not supposed to do, but it easily came down.



Then came the last limb ... Coming into the day, we all knew this would be the toughest one. The entire limb was leaning towards the house. So if we don't cut it down correctly, it could easily fall into the house taking out some windows, gutters, etc. If we lean it too much to the left, we run the risk of it falling into the good tree in the yard or hitting the power lines. If it falls too far to the right, there is the possibility that it hits the house next to them.

Basically, it's a tough situation, and we have to get it right. After playing catch with a wrench tied to some rope, we finally hook the tree where we want. AP and Scott pull the rope towards the road while I start making a V notch and cutting it down. Once I cut through the tree, it starts to bend back towards the house and basically the only thing keeping it upright was AP and Scott holding the rope ... that is until Scott decides to let go leaving AP the only person protecting the house from imminent danger and destruction.

With feet dug into the yard, he somehow manages to keep hold of the tree until we get four people on the rope to finally break it towards the street.

Once the last limb is on the ground, it's basically clean up time. We kept chopping it up and stacking it with everything else in the driveway leaving us with a 3-4 foot stump. Thinking this is probably a little high to grind down, we let AP take the last go at it and he definitely delivered.

Even in true hipster-lumberjack style.

The last thing to do? Sit back and admire our work. There's absolutely nothing like cutting down a tree the day after Arbor Day.