Chopping Down a Dead Tree

There’s a tree on our property that’s been dying over the past few years and becoming increasingly less attractive. We’ve talked about removing it many times, but have put it off for one reason or another. Last summer Emily used to run in the morning. She saw a skunk come out of the brush by the dead tree several times. We thought his home might be near the tree, and that’s the main reason we’ve stayed clear of the tree.

We announced our tree removal plan to the children. They seem to always welcome exciting projects, especially one like this. The words like construction, demolition, fix, destroy, push, pull, dig, water, fire, mud, dirt, and fun all have a way of stimulating and rousing everyone.

We dug around the tree with the Bobcat, connected a chain, and pulled the tree trunks out into an open area. The children were interested in helping hook up the chain and clean up branches and limbs. We used the Bobcat to push all the tree trunks and large pieces of wood into a pile that we would saw up later for firewood.

After we removed the tree and pulled it out of the ditch, we started filling in the hole and smoothing the landscape. We dug the high places, filled in the ditch, and made the area look more beautiful. We changed the deep wash into a gentle sloping ditch that would still channel sporadic spring water.

After the project was done, we stood back and admired the work we did together. The children love to be involved and play an important part in family activities like this.

Families who work and play together, more often stay together.