A pine in our backyard started dying two years ago. You could see the needles falling, the woodpeckers going after one particular spot, pitting the bark there. The bark stated falling off. Then dry, dead branches started crashing down. It was time to take it down, because Amie’s swing stands only ten feet away from it.
We have a neighbor and friend who takes down trees and sells firewood and some lumber for a living. He has taken down our trees for us – a big lot of them when we cleared for our garden and solar – and has shown us how to split wood with a maul, how to buck logs with our chain saw, how to bring hanging branches down with a catapult, etc. He came over to check out this tree and said it could be done without a crane.
Last week he and his helper came by and within fifteen minutes that tree was down. I was very nervous about it since he had only a ten foot wide corridor to drop it in. It went flawlessly and made for a great show.