lumberjack

As promised, the tree cutters arrived this afternoon. I missed the demise of the big tree - but here is the final moment of a small cedar - as seen from the stairs window - a tree that (before you feel sorry for it) has a pervasive root system that seems to be weakening the wall just beside it - and hence helping water enter the basement. The eight men worked with ferocious speed and efficiency - one up on high, taking down sections of trunk ten feet or so at a time, and the remainder shoveling branches and trunk into a a monster (and probably shockingly polluting) wood chipper. Then they attacked the trunks with a large rotary blade, pulled a lot of soil over them, and drove off - leaving a strong smell of cedar in the air, and a wonderful view of our house's new tower if you stand at one angle, and a depressingly solid vista of the neighboring apartment block if you stand at another.