Another Tree Assault Planned

The cat people are die hards, that's for sure.

The Silverton cat lady came with her husband a couple weeks back to go after a few of the smaller branches of my leaning tower of tree--the split maple.

I think we took off three maybe four three to four inch branches. That created debris. Here, we only get a yard debris cart emptied once every two weeks. The Silverton people couldn't believe it. Even there, in that small town, their yard debris is hauled off weekly. My yard debris cart was emptied with the service weekly in Corvallis too. Here, we pay the same price, maybe more, for half the service.

Leaves and any yard debris become a big problem.

Leaf pickup is sketchy come fall and mysterious. The leaves are picked up only a few times and must be out on the street the right day, whatever day that might be. Often, the leaves are flattened from traffic or blown all over the place long before the appointed day. I get buried in leaves each fall and there's nowhere they can go.

That's another big huge fat plus, enough to make me drool with delight, to think of ridding myself of half the maple leaves if the leaning maple comes down.

But the leaf fall isn't why it's got to come down. It's split and leaning. It's split down the middle now all the way to the ground. You can pour a cup of water where it starts the split, about six feet up from the ground, where the big branches take off on each half of the tree, and watch it drain out the crack at the bottom.

It's going to fall.

The only question is when.

The Silverton cat lady assault on the maple didn't fell it, but resulted in significant branch denudation. We gave up quickly. It was a nice day, after all, so we dropped the electric chain saw, and headed to the river.

Then I injured my neck trying to put the cat wire covering the cat yard back together after they left. Ever since, I've been trying to mend. I'm bad at resting up.

Bad! No good.

Poppa Inc's president, a certified master gardener and yardee, announced to me today by e-mail, that she and two friends are coming down Sunday to lay assault upon the maple. She's never used a chainsaw, she says, but how hard could it be? I quickly and eagerly suggested, "If we rent one, I'll run it." (panting, dog style, in excitement). I've watched people run chains saws. I've felled branches with a sawzall! Same principles, bigger machine is all.

We'll try not to get hurt. My guess is we'll get distracted and wander off.

I don't know where she's scrounged the gas money to come down. We all scrounge now for gas money, for cat food money, for everything. One of her friends gets $500 a month from some trust, or something, and has to scrounge to come up with everything else to survive. She keeps some ducks, for food and eggs, and some goats and tries to find odd jobs, like a lot of people. I don't know what I would have done without my garden food this year. Today, that's all I ate, squash and potatoes, from my garden stash. Back to the basics of survival.

The second wave of cat people are coming. They're coming ready to do battle on a tree that's steadfast in its determination to take me out and fall when I'm not looking.

They will be just as unequipped as the last cat people to try. That won't stop them.

Or me.

I told her maybe my neck would be better and my arms not numb by Sunday, so I won't drop things like running chain saws. She said "That'd be good."