The demise of the cottonwood

Well on my list of things that needed to get done once the house was totally mine was the removal of the cottonwood tree. This old tree had been here longer than I've lived here, and was a icon of Central Neighborhood rising a full 2 stories over my 3 story house! This photo shows it silhouetted against the rainy sky after the deadwood had been cut out. That turned out to be phase one. The weather and high winds drove Vineland Tree Removal away for safety reasons.


They arrived back with a crane, chipper, and flatbed later in the week to begin removal. Jim arrived with his three sons, and I'm sorry I was down with the flu and couldn't fully appreciate the marvelously orchestrated dance they did in it's removal.

A limb at a time, limbs so big that a man couldn't encircle it with his arms were bound by a line, carefully cut, then lowered to the ground to be chipped up. Just as a side note, the trunk itself was so massive that two men encircling it could barely touch finger tips.


They brought a chipper unit made short work of the entire limb. They would place the base of the limb against the blade and it would literally "chunk" and pull the entire limb through it's steel jaws throwing out chips from the other end.





All too soon there was only a single delimbed trunk rising up into the sky. The lone totem. I was tempted to have them leave it, but then I'd still have to cut around it. :)






Even that was quickly whittled down to size as they hooked up the cranes tether again, cut it down at ground level, and hoisted the last remaining piece onto the pile of logs to be removed.






The flatbed hoisted up the trunks and strapped them down to be taken to a unknown destination. Cottonwood is very soft, so it's not on it's way to any furniture store. I did manage to convince them to cut off one slab for me to keep. It's currently drying in the front yard. Already folks driving up say they miss their landmark.

Then the stump removal company came in and began chipping away at the stump and it's runner roots. Soon there was nothing left but a pile of wood chips. And those wood chips, from the stump alone, covered my entire back and side yard with a nice bed of mulch to keep the mud down. :) I must say that I was VERY pleased with how the whole thing happened. From Friday morning to Saturday evening everyone worked and it was done. Total expense??? $4,000. A hit, but well worth it.