Horticultural Drama

It wouldn't surprise me if this lilac has been in this very spot for more than fifty years.  It has looked unhealthy for the entire time I have lived here.  I have pruned it and more recently just been removing branches as I could to make it easier to remove it.  I actually toyed with the idea of buying a chain saw and doing it myself but that was vetoed by Amy.  Given my history with tree work, kind of falling off the ladder and truly scraping up my leg, I conceded that it was not the best idea.

So Mark came over and did it today.  Why the tree survived is beyond me.  Jack had dug a huge trench behind it and Dylan worked on it as well.  I even heard Min who has only been here 6 days making dirt fly.  It was the perfect little hide-out, cool and shady.  A Serious Hazard though for someone with a chain saw in their hands.  Turns out there was very little chain sawing.  Mark did some digging but most had been done, cut a few pieces and then with a long pole with a flat end, levered huge portions right out of the ground.  Amazing.

And, he hoisted enormous sections of the tree on his shoulder and carried them out to the street to his truck!  It took him just more than an hour and I am very grateful that he did this for me.

It's a big hole but not terribly deep.

Lots of work to be done!

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