Tree Removal: We've Had Enough Excitement This Summer

I'm in full agreement with my wife: we have had enough excitement this summer.

There's been good kinds of excitement: like getting the patio in back that she's wanted since we bought the house.

Then, there's the storm we on Tuesday, July 27. (July 27, 2010) I'm not complaining: it could have been a whole lot worse.

On the other hand, the majority of an old willow in our back yard ended up - on our back yard. That much dead wood won't just go away, so my wife found an outfit, Hoffman Tree Service & Stump Removal, who could cut the willow into bite-sized chunks and haul it away.

Haul most of it away, that it. She saved a sound piece of the willow for her father, L. N. Kaas. He uses willow wood for some violin repairs.

Here's how the tree removal went, on Monday:


That was a big tree. Still was, even with most of it down. August 2, 2010.


Enter the Bobcat. Those are great things for this sort of job. August 2, 2010.


The Bobcat, again, with substantial hunk of willow in it's 'jaws.' August 2, 2010.


And again. They'd hauled one truckload out and come back for more by now. August 2, 2010.


We're hoping the willow will grow back: which is why they left so much of the stump. August 2, 2010.


And this is why, at about 3:00 p.m., I stopped being able to work online. That cable had been set over a root, probably just under the surface. August 2, 2010.


That had been seeded earlier this summer, after work on the patio. Oh, well: we didn't know a storm would knock down most of the willow. August 2, 2010.

It was a hot, humid Monday, and I had work to get done. Right around 3:00 that afternoon, I lost my Internet connection. Hoffman was still in the back yard, getting the last of the old willow removed. There's a connection with what they were doing, but it wasn't obvious at the time.

All I knew was that I couldn't get online, my webcam couldn't get a signal out, and our telephone was dead. Also the television. We get phone, cable and Internet through the same cable, and it didn't take a highly-trained technician to tell that something was wrong with our connection.

I needed to call our service provider: which is quite a trick, with no phone. I hadn't been over to L. N. Kaas's place, my father-in-law, since he started fixing violins: and this was a fine excuse to go over.

I took a picture of a two violins he's got on display in his shop, talked, and went back home. (Photo of the violins is in another blog)

By then, Hoffman and my wife had discovered what had happened. The coaxial cable leading to our house had bee "buried," but nowhere near deep enough.

The thing had snapped when Hoffman's Bobcat skid loader ran over it

I'm not faulting them. They didn't know that that cable was hidden, presumably just under the sod, because we didn't know. The guys who put the cable in, earlier this summer, had apparently encountered a root just under the surface: and placed the cable over the obstruction, instead of cutting through it.
I'm told that, legally, they're not obliged to do more than make sure that the homeowner can't see the cable. "Under the sod" is how it was put. I'd have appreciated knowing how it was - but we live and learn.