Snow in Aug

They're cutting down all the shade, and its snowing in August!!!

No, this is not the result of a bad LSD trip.

About 2 weeks ago we had some fairly strong storms and one of the trees in the vacant lot adjacent to our house lost a pretty big limb. The limb appeared to be dead so it was no great surprise that the wind pulled it off. As the limb fell to the ground it snapped off a smaller but live limb, and both laid on the ground for a about 2 weeks.

A few days ago our neighbor who owns the vacant lot met with a guy from a tree service and I could see them talking and pointing up at some of the trees. I imagined they were discussing which ones had dead limbs that needed to be removed, and I privately applauded my neighbor for taking this action.

Although the vacant lot is rather small (30' wide by 100' deep) it had 14 tall, old trees. I estimate some of the trees were 60' feet tall. I enjoyed having the trees on the lot as it provided a natural visual buffer between our house and the neighbors. The tall trees also provided welcome shade to our house and back/side yard. But I knew that at least some of the limbs needed to be removed since they were dead. We certainly didn't want any limbs crashing down onto or into our house.

This morning the tree service returned with a 'cherry picker', a dump truck, a front-end loader, a tree mulcher, and a crew of about 6 men. This did not look like the crew you'd send to remove a few dead limbs. I started to get a little nervous and the machinery roared to life.

A guy with a chain saw hopped into the bucket of the 'cherry picker' and navigated around the tops of the trees, cutting off limbs one by one, which fell to the ground with a sound like a giant fly swatter hitting a wall. As each limb dropped, the other men hauled them over to the tree mulcher and shoved them inside. In just seconds each heavy limb was shredded and blown into the dump truck. I hoped they were going to stop after removing the tops of the trees and any dead limbs, but they didn't.

The loud noises of the chain saw, tree mulcher, and front-end loader continued the entire day. There was so much sawdust in the air that when I looked out the window on the opposite side of the house from where they were working, it looked as if it were snowing. Our yard, sidewalk, driveway, cars, porch, and roof were all coated in sawdust. When they quit working around 4:00 all that remained were 14 stumps. It made me sad.

Our neighbor who owns the lot stopped by to tell me that the tree service would be back on Mon to remove the stumps and clean up. He assured me that our yard would be cleaned of all that sawdust, and I thanked him for being so considerate, though I bet they'll just take a leaf blower and blow the sawdust from the yard into the street.

So, they cut down all the shade and made it snow in Aug.

Drag Queen name of the day: Mary Land