Our Ash is Trash...

Our Ash is trash.

In our front yard, we have an ash tree between the sidewalk and street.  Recently Paul noticed a bad crack in the trunk.  He called an arborist to look at it.  The arborist said that although he could attempt to save the tree, he would not recommend it since the dreaded emerald ash borer is rapidly boring in in Rochester (see link).  Minnesota has something like 900 million (that's right, see this second link) ash trees and it looks like it's going to be a slaughter.  Supposedly Rochester has 80,000 ash trees.  The arborist felt it was not worth the risk/effort to try and save the tree (only later to have the city condemn all ash trees in a given area) and unfortunately we agreed.  Paul contacted the city forester who came by and officially condemned the tree today.  

The Return of the "Lumberjack"...

He swings through that tree,
with the greatest of ease,
that half crazy man,
in my neighbor's elm tree.

Seven months later, the "lumberjack" has returned to finish cutting down our neighbors elm tree. Paul managed to catch a short clip of him high up cutting sections down in a very safe manner.

Notice how he uses the chainsaw with one hand...

American Elm: Part II

Progress is slow on the removal of our neighbor's towering Elm tree. Weeks have passed and only about 1/2 of the tree has been removed. One would wonder why. Perhaps what Paul overheard while they were last working here might explain it:

Mad Lumberjack: "Get out of the way. I already have two workers in neck braces!"

This is from 8/12...

This is the tree. albeit from a different angle...
...on 8/31

American Elm...

The other day, we heard a knock at the side door. Paul went to see what was going on. There was a very scruffy looking man, who looked exactly like Groundskeeper Willie with the only difference being the lack of a Scottish accent...and that the fellow standing in front of Paul smelled so bad he could knock a turkey buzzard off a manure wagon. The fellow certainly had the crazed aura of Groundskeeper Willie. Apparently he had been hired by our neighbor to take down her large elm tree (for a paltry $2k). He wanted to use our driveway to remove cut portions of the tree. It is sad to see yet another elm go. We'll take some photos as the work progresses.

We'd trust a Simpsons' character with a chainsaw...
...well before we'd trust the fellow that was knocking at our door...

All this set Paul in to a flashback to his childhood. His hometown in upstate New York State (a relative term depending on who you talk to in New York State, so let's just say the Central Leatherstocking Region). Like many American cities, Paul's hometown had stately elms lining the streets. When Dutch Elm disease finally devastated them, the elms in his hometown were all gone.

There was a large elm in front of Paul's parents' house when he was young. According to Paul's parents it was between the sidewalk and the street, yet it's branches reached over the house (if you've seen the depth of their front yard, that is pretty impressive). When Paul called his parents to inquire about getting a photo, they told him about when his father's parents came to visit them for the first time decades ago, they were amazed by elms lining their city's streets and the cathedral effect they had as they touched each other over the center line. If Paul's parents can find a photo, we'll put it on the blog. For now, we found this on Flickr...

Perhaps these elms here are similar to what Paul's hometown was like...
Photo by photo_martha, Creative Commons License 2.0