Tiiiimmmmbbbeeeerrrrr

No more roots

This weekend we said goodbye to the banyan tree. I’ve learned that it is actually a rubber tree which is part of the banyan tree family. I guess that makes sense, it’s sap is real sticky and it dries rubbery. Nasty stuff. Regardless, it’s gone. And hopefully for good. Those roots have caused more than their fair share of damage.

Truck, trailer, tractor, and crew

Thursday I got a text from our neighbor Tom. He said he had the big trailer ready as well as the tractor and a crew to work it. That’s amazing. Taking down this tree is one of the biggest jobs for this house, and to have a crew with equipment volunteering to help….it’s truly amazing. We came up on Thursday evening and got settled in just in time to watch the sun set. Friday morning, it was go time.

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Let’s do this!

Early Friday morning I got the chainsaw prepped and got some hand lines out for guiding some of the limbs down. Tom showed up bright and early with his giant dump trailer. This thing is legit. Then he brought down the “little” tractor. The little tractor happens to be a good sized 4 wheel drive John Deere tractor with a front end loader. At first it was just he and I. We dropped a few of the bigger safer limbs and then cut them into pieces. He made quick work of loading them up with the tractor. You can tell he’s got lots of hours running that machine. He’s real smooth with it.

More help arrives

Not too much later Tom’s son Richard and another neighbor Walter came down to help out. Richard hopped up in the bucket as Tom guided him in place to drop more limbs. And to clarify, when I say limbs, most of these are bigger around than a basketball. As the limbs came down, Walter and I piled them up for the tractor to load them into the trailer. After the trailer was filled, Tom and Walter went to dump it while Richard and I stayed to drop some more limbs.

Close calls

Richard drove the tractor while I was up in the bucket using either their pole saw or a chainsaw to drop more limbs. We only had one go the wrong way on us but a hand line got it tamed. We dropped one large limb that just barely cleared the front porch. It missed by maybe 3 inches. Maybe…. It crushed the plant that was a foot from the house. Just saying. But, a miss is a miss. Once the crew returned, we dropped the remaining limbs including a few that were overhanging the porch. Very good team work by all. After getting the trailer loaded up a second time, the crew called it a day.

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Challenge Accepted

As they left, Tom threw out a challenge. I’m not sure he meant it to be a challenge, but I took it that way regardless. He said something along the lines of, “if you can get the rest of it on the ground, I’ll get it hauled off”. Challenge accepted! At this point the only thing that’s lacking is a 15′ tall tree stump…..Easy! Except that it’s 10′ wide and between 3′-4′ thick…..

Jake: 1. Banyan tree: 0

I spent the next 3 hours running the chainsaw wide open. In doing so I went through a few chains and lots of fuel and bar oil. I left a massive pile of downed tree trunk in my wake. With all of that cutting, the sawdust started sticking to my arms, legs, head, clothes, and shoes to where I looked like a giant furball. Unfortunately for me that “fur” didn’t come off with anything but a gasoline bath.

Ribs, beans, and slaw!

After the gas bath I took a real bath and got dressed just in time for Walter and his wife Joyce to drop off a hot meal to us! That was so thoughtful! Walter must have heard that I love ribs because they brought ribs, baked beans, and coleslaw. That really hit the spot!

More tree hauling

Saturday brought much nicer weather. I got the white portion of the squares sanded out on the porch and Oceana got 2 coats of paint on them. I also replaced the screening on the south side of the porch where I ran short. For this side I tried a solar screening as that is the side the sun hits to see if it keeps it a little cooler. Time will tell. Tom and Richard came back over and we got the massive pile of tree trunks loaded up which filled up the trailer a third time.

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More bad wiring

As they hauled off the load, I got into the wiring on the screen porch. Oceana and I figured out what we wanted for the lighting layout so I started pulling all of the wires to the new switch and outlet locations. This had me up in the attic and down in the crawl space but I was able to get everything I needed pulled. In doing this wiring, I found more old wiring that was real bad. In one area the bare copper was showing on both wires. This is precisely why I am replacing all of the old wiring. I also found old knob and tube wiring up in the attic. This may stay just for nostalgia but it will not be live.

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More home cookin’

Saturday evening as we were working on the porch our neighbor Mark came over with a pair of plates. He’d cooked some beer can chicken and his wife made some pasta salad and they brought us a few plates to share. Dang yall. You guys are so nice. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a place with such great neighbors.

Sunday morning roots

Sunday morning was supposed to be relaxing. I decided to go pick up sticks in the front yard to clean things up which quickly escalated to me fighting banyan tree roots with a machete. The tractor had pulled up a bunch of roots on Saturday and before I could get the yard leveled back out, the exposed roots had to go. 2 hours later the exposed roots were cleared and I was spent. We tidied up the house and loaded up the two week old chickies and headed home.

But it rained all day

My favorite quote from this weekend came from a neighbor who walks around the lake regularly. “Wow. When did you cut that tree down?” Oceana responded, “yesterday”. The woman looking perplexed, “but it rained all day yesterday”. Yes, yes it did. And it was cold. So thank you Tom, Richard, and Walter for sticking it out and helping me get that tree cleared out. I couldn’t have done it without you guys.