Timber!

Last year we had a drought.  It's a strange thing in Louisiana to not have rainfall, but it happened.  We lost a magnolia tree in our yard.  I really hate that because the fragrance from a fresh magnolia blossom is a scent that is wonderful.  The drought caused fish to die in people's ponds.  Many older trees, which were weakened anyway were finished off by the drought.  Such was the case with two old pine trees at our church.

Since the drought, the trees began losing limbs, dropping pine cones and bark.  It was only a matter of time before they fell.  We couldn't hardly afford that since at least one of the trees was dangerously close to LA Hwy 26.  Saturday morning was a beautiful and crisp fall morning.  A perfect day for felling a couple of trees.  Bro. Jerry brought his mule.  We were going to need that thing.  Jerry will be 89 years old on January 1st.  I hope I'm still dropping pine trees when I'm approaching 90!

The mule's winch is pulled tight

We guessimated the height of the tree to ensure Jerry was far enough away.  We aren't professionals, so I went home and came back with two extra chains that we connected.  You can see the embankment for the highway to the east of the tree and why it was important to have the tree fall toward the mule and not toward the road.

The other tree that was farther from the road was already down along with one side of the 'double' pine tree.

Dwayne got his chain saw and climbed the ladder to cut the tree.

As he cut, I held the ladder to keep him from tipping over.  I also told him when he hears the tree pop, that we were going to run.  I think I mentioned for him to keep an eye out for the "widow makers" (rotten limbs) that were right above us.

Timber!  We heard the tree crack and it fell exactly where we needed it to fall!

Thank the Good Lord!  I was a little worried for a minute there.  We cut the trees all to pieces and used the mule to drag the trees to the back with a chain where we'll have a bonfire later on.  The mule also has a bed that dumps, so we piled branches, bark and pine cones in the back and got things pretty much cleaned up for Morning Worship today.  We left a big piece of the stump standing on one of the trees.  I told Dwayne to start practicing with his chainsaw and maybe he could make a chainsaw sculpture.