Change Of Plans

It pays to be flexible.  I thought I had this week pretty well lined out, silly me.  Monday:  doctor's appointment.  Tuesday:  Tree Guy.  Wednesday:  take Truck in for servicing.  Thursday:  collapse.  Sounded like a plan to me.

Tree Guy called yesterday morning around 7 while I was still at the computer and the sun wasn't fully up yet.  "Hey, we're due for rain tomorrow, my driveway isn't packed with snow, and I've got time to take down that tree today."  I explained that I did have an appointment down in Cameron Park at noon.  "No problem.  I'll be there in an hour."  Alrighty then.  I threw on some clothes and did a quick swipe in the kitchen.  TG and his coworker, Tom, arrived right on time.  The first order of the day was to get the goats locked into the big pen and out of danger.  Normally the girls follow me wherever I go.  Not yesterday.  They had coordinated coming into season and only had eyes for each other.  "I thought you said they were both females," said TG.  "They are," and let the guys figure it out for themselves.  "Oh."

After some finagling, the goofy goats were safe and the men set to work.  The tree was a lot bigger than TG had thought when he first assessed it and the root system that had pulled out of the ground was a problem.  They dug out the hole even farther to make room.  "Do you have an axe so we can chop some of these roots?"  I went back up to the feed barn.  "Do you have a hammer and maybe a crowbar?"  Back up the hill again.  Chain saws roared and limbs dropped.  Then it was time to get out the ropes and pull the main trunk off the barn roof.  You know how it goes.  If a thing can go wrong, it probably will.  Because his truck couldn't get through the gate, his ropes were well over 100 feet long.  The truck strained, the ropes pulled taught, and then with a sound like a gun blast, the ropes snapped, the tree dropped again, and the ropes snaked forward like a slingshot.  Yeesh!  Nobody was hurt; however, I went in and cancelled my appointment just in case I was needed to take somebody to the hospital.

The skies turned dark and an icy wind sprang up.  A second try with another rope was made.  Blam!  This rope snapped too, this time flying backward.  Okay, I couldn't watch this anymore.  Back up the hill to the house.  I wasn't there all that long before I couldn't stand it and went out again.  The guys had formulated a better plan of attack, climbing up on the roof to remove more of the weight and had set up a better system using more ropes and utilizing a telephone pole as an anchor.  Finally, the tree came upright where the trunk could be felled, falling forward into the pen.  Whew and hip, hip, hooray!  Taking my tools back to the feed barn and helping organize TG's stuff while they finished up made for a couple more trips on the hill.  I wasn't the one doing the work, but I was tired.  "Coffee, anyone?"  "Oh, yes, please."  Back up to the house.

Stove had cooperated and even the kitchen was warm when the guys came in.  Cups of fresh hot coffee helped.  TG said they'd come back when the weather allowed and we agreed that he'd do that work for an even share of the firewood.  The rain hit about an hour after they left.

The goats had been let back into the smaller pen where they now had branches to chew on, rub against, and stumps to jump on.  After logging a mile and a half, mostly uphill, I moved Thursday's plan ahead and just collapsed.  It was a good day.