The Great Tree Harvest

Our property is boarded by trees on its east, west and south sides, but while my wife tolerate evergreens, she doesn't particularly appreciate aspens that she considers like invading “weeds.”

I don't mind them and hate to cut any kind of tree, and that difference of opinion is exactly shared, along gender lines with Michelle and Bret, our neighbors to the west.

So, this past Sunday, we had an informal meeting between the two households and the two men basically acquiesced to the ladies' demands, agreeing to cut many of the offending aspen trees between our two properties.

After that harsh death sentence fell on trees that had committed no crimes, I began to have “buyer's remorse”, but that didn't prevent me from running to the store and get a brand new saw that got tested a few moments later when I fell seven aspen trees in less than one hour.

Granted, these trees weren't huge, but their future was bright, especially every month of October! A few larger trees asked for a stay of execution which I immediately granted, mostly on the ground that their trunk was too large and that they were too much work to cut.

After assessing the scope of the decimating work, my spouse seemed happy, my neighbors impressed and I hope the subject won't come up again for another year...