This house had two gigantic trees; a bunch of bamboo in the backyard yard and an olive tree on the side of the house.
Early on in our stay, we had ‘a guy’ remove the noisy branch from behind the bohio. Back then, early in December, everything was green and the bamboo tree full and lush. Now, after three months of no rain, we are into the brown season with the bamboo having much fewer leaves.
A little while ago we were notified that someone would be coming to trim the trees. It was a most entertaining day. Two guys, a gal and a kid showed up bright and early in the morning with a machete and a chain saw.
It took about four hours for the large clump of bamboo to be gone. While one worker was cutting, the other two were dragging the poles to the back of the yard. I am really good at guessing (haha), so I am going to say they were about 40 feet tall. The poles were cut into manageable lengths and left. I imagine Mother Nature will take care of them over time.
After lunch it was time to tackle the tree at the side of the house. This tree was even bigger and taller than the bamboo. We watched a young man remove his runners, take a machete and shimmy up the tree in his bare feet. He would cut a few limbs off, climb up a bit more and cut more limbs.
It is amazing how that machete can cut through some pretty good size branches.
Eventually it was time to cut off a big branch that was hanging over the house. A rope was thrown to the guy up in the tree. Initially I thought it was a safety harness. But no, it looked like a kind of pulley was rigged.
Then it was time to bring out the chain saw. It was a little freaky to say the least…. bare feet, standing on a cut limb, and a chain saw.
Everybody survived what in my mind was very dangerous work. Then it was clean up time, drag everything to the back, cut it up and call it a day. Wow! You must have nerves of steel to do this kind of work.
The tree might be just a little lop sided, but it is still massive.
Cheers,
Ruth
ruthkennedysretirementblog 