The family tree

My husband is a jack of all trades. He has two skill sets that have come in handy when we need some extra money. He used to work for the utility as a tree trimmer. He now works for the utility as a lineman. No, not a linebacker, a lineman. When your power goes out, he is the one who comes to restore it. He does not love to do tree work as it is quite labor intensive and dirty. Plus he always says that the tree looks 100 times bigger than its original size when he has to go and begin the work.

Over the summer, my aunt had a major act of God occur in her backyard. An old tree uprooted after heavy rains came and fell into her neighbor's yard. She has an even older, larger tree sitting right next to the fallen one that was causing her great alarm. She was convinced that it, too, was going to fall squarely on her roof and kill her in her sleep. She asked Kevin to come and look at it. He did not have to, as he knew the tree in question. I know that he was hoping she would not ask him to take it down, but he would never say that. She asked and he obliged. Or rather, she asked me and because he loves me, he obliged.

The tree that needed to be taken down is easily over 80 feet tall. It spanned my aunt's roof and was situated in such a manner that if it the take down of any branch was miscalculated, it would take out neighboring structures. Not exactly the ideal situation for taking down trees. A professional tree crew would use a crane and a bucket truck to complete the work, but we don't have a crane. We have three children who can work, though. And work they did.

Yesterday we all went back to my aunt's house to finish taking down the tree. It is grueling work for Kevin, especially in light of the fact that he worked nights the night before at his regular lineman job. If you have never seen a tree climber in action, look here. He puts on his spikes to aid in climbing, and then his saddle. The saddle is then loaded up with his chainsaw, hand saw, and rigging rope, about 40 extra pounds of gear. It is all climbing and rigging and calculating where to drop branches. It is dangerous, precise work. Imagine swinging from a tree with blades hanging from your waist. You would rather sit by the pool with a good book, right?

John and I work the rope on the ground and Jeremy uses the hand saw to cut off manageable pieces of brush for Joe to drag to the trailer. It is a family affair. I am so incredibly proud of all of my boys. They went to work yesterday with not one complaint that they were hot, or tired, or hungry or just plain ol' did not want to work. They are awesome, all of them.

I am a blessed girl.