Adventures with Fishing Grandpa

I am a bit quirky. Let me introduce you to the reason for most of my quirks. This is my Dad.

He had some trees he wanted to thin, so he invited us up to "help" him out. His wife had put her foot down and told him he could not do it himself. He retired several years ago. My brother and I live in other towns, so he doesn't have anyone local that has to go along with his crazy plans. We have helped him get the snow off of his roof with sheets of metal roofing. We have hunted beavers in the dark. We have helped him drag fallen logs to set on stumps for bridges. Yeah, you'd think we would learn.

So, these trees are fairly close to his house, his fence, his garden, his propane tank, and his cars. So his plan was to put a ladder against the tree, climb up with his chain saw, and fall the trees in sections. Most of us had serious reservations about the whole ladder and chainsaw aspect of the project.

My husband had to take a couple of our kids over to the Gum Grandma's. The rest of the crew and I got down to business and followed Dad out to the trees. He sent a couple of kids up the ladder with cables which he then tied around a fence post and on to the tailgate of his pick-up. Then the kids and I climbed in the truck and Dad climbed up the ladder. He started sawing. He gave me a wave and I hit the gas. The tree came down without hitting anything, but it did hit the ground really close to the part he was leaning against. I hopped out and asked if the shaking ladder was part of the plan. He said "not exactly".

We fell a couple of more without event. The hubby got back and took over my job. We ended up with one child with a big bruise on her thigh where a section of log rolled over on her. They pulled out one fence post, fortunately the man in the tree with the chainsaw realized that there was a problem before he got completely through the tree. They traded up from the truck to the tractor at that point. They did have to take out a couple of sections of fence to get a couple of bigger trees down. And they missed the power box by a hair. We were watching them fall that one, it was scary. "It was perfect, almost" ~ Rick

I think the $400 it would have cost him to have professionals do the job was a bargain. The kids thought it was fun, and it is one more entertaining weekend with Grandpa. Our trips to Grandpa's house are never boring. This is all part of the simple life. Working at home, together.