We have several black walnut trees on our property. One tree in particular is huge, it slants at a precarious angle, shades my garden and drops those hard green balls all over the yard where we walk between the house, the chicken coop, the barn and the garden. Even worse, the tree has a substance called juglone which is toxic to my fruit-bearing trees and bushes like apples, pears, raspberries, blueberries AND toxic for some of my annual vegetable plants, too. So the tree had to go.

This was no easy project. Not one that Chris could handle with his chain saw. This required a crane, a crew and a monkey. It was both fascinating and scary to watch. Even getting the crane up the driveway threading precariously through our tall Linden trees had me holding my breath. Then it had to get turned around in the tight space between the greenhouse, garage and house so that it could back across the front yard and get positioned next to the tree. Then the monkey showed up – this guy who climbed to the top canopy of the tree with a chain saw in his hand, wrapped ropes from the crane arm around the branches and started cutting. The crane then swung huge limbs and 12′ lengths of trunk up and over our porch roof to the driveway. The crew chipped and shredded the small stuff and left Chris with MOUNTAINS of logs.

Now we have STACKS of logs and a shed full of split wood ready for the wood stove and the fireplace. We are all set for a toasty-warm winter in front of the fireplace, and I can’t wait to plant my garden with full sunshine!