The Felling of the Tree

Way back in October, my parents and brother came to visit. My dad was obviously very excited to see his "favorite daughter, favorite son-in-law, and favorite grandkids" (his words, not mine), but he also came to California with a mission:

To cut this tree down. The pine tree, not the palm tree.

The fact that I wanted this tree gone might come as a surprise to some of you. Around these parts, I'm considered somewhat of a nature-lover-tree-hugger, if you may. There aren't many true hippies here in Southern California, so the fact that I'm from Oregon and that I recycle automatically qualifies me as a hippie. Go figure.

Anyway, this tree was a real menace to society. The tree was growing crooked, dangerously close to our home, and threatening the safety of every child innocently passing by on their way to school. Not to mention the fact that the tree was blocking out sunlight, rendering it impossible to grow anything green underneath its bows, as well as littering our lawn and sidewalk with needles and treeish-whatnot. Clearly, this tree was all sorts of bad news and needed to go.

Before picture- side view

This tree-cutting business really turned into a family affair, as do most of our home renovation projects. Steve's Dad (Doug) brought over his chain saw and joined in the fun. And here's a picture of Jimmy doing what Jimmy does best; supervising:


My mom, Steve's mom (Marsha), and I were tasked with the job of entertaining the children, sewing Halloween costumes, and keeping Steve abreast with the progress. Even though he was dressed up in his fancy work clothes, Steve just had to jump in during his lunch break:

The menfolk, surveying their work

Now, my Dad isn't a professional logger, but he's a very capable guy. Nonetheless, I did make him swear that no injury would befall house or human, and he was true to his word. However, there was one small misstep:

I love that the instant this happened, Jimmy had out his IPhone. And yes, it was posted on Facebook within minutes.

However, that was just a small setback, and no serious damage occurred. Again, the whole family got in on bringing this baby down:


Then came the really fun part for my dad:


And then even more fun for the whole family:


And finally, TIMBER!


Jimmy gave up counting the rings at about 5 rings in...


Great work, Lumberjack Dad. We love you!