Trimming the Trees

I heard some time ago that there was a man who worked for the church who was good at pruning trees. On April 21 & 22 I had a delightful experience because he and his wife came over and trimmed our silver maple trees in the back yard. They also trimmed and cabled the Norway Maple in the front yard.Bill McGee assured me that he was well-trained & experienced, licensed and bonded, had all the necessary safety equipment, and does NOT believe in topping trees. He is not only good at what he does, but he really loves his work. He said "Like Mark Twain says: I do this because I’m too lazy to work and too scared to steal."Our son Peter has done much of our tree trimming in the past. Peter would have loved watching Bro. McGee work. Peter would have loved doing what he did. The trouble is that when Peter got up in the trees to trim them in the past, he didn't have the safety equipment, so I got really nervous when Peter did it.

Bro. McGee not only worked hard, but he was very entertaining. He told me that there are only two kinds of people that trim trees: dead ones, and those who pray a lot! I was SURE glad that he had those good strong ropes attached to him.

It was fun for me to see how well he and his wife, Landa work together. She worked just as hard as he did, only she stayed on the ground. They were also very careful of each other's safety. If there was any danger of something falling on her, for instance, he would call out "HEADACHE," as a warning to get out of the way. (In other words she would probably get a headache if a branch fell on her head.)

The branch in the next picture was of particular concern because it stuck way out and carried a lot of weight on it. He trimmed off excess branches, and also shortened it quite a bit.

Like I said, I was so very glad he had those ropes!
Here he is standing on the railing with the pole saw, starting to trim the rest of that branch.

He didn't want the branch to fall by itself, because it was heavy and blunt on the end and would have made a hole in the ground. Instead he looped a rope over it so he could take it down slowly. He had obviously done this before.

Pulling it tight
In the process of taking down the small, but heavy branch.
Now that branch is lighter, and safer, but still gives us some shade.

Picking up the pieces. They didn't leave anything behind.This is how it looked before they started.

And below is the finished product. Peter asked for an after picture from the same angle as the before one. I tried. This is pretty close. The main problem is that the after picture has leaves. Sorry about that.

When we go out on the deck now, it feels so light and airy, yet there is adequate shade. It is very, very nice. I sincerely appreciate the McGees for the wonderful job they did. It was great fun to have them here.

Landa and Bill McGee having a well-earned rest at the end of a very busy day. Thank you for a job well done!