Tree Removal, Driveway work
July 2017
It was a busy couple of days at the cabin. We had a meeting scheduled with the Designer and Architect (more to come on that) for Sunday, so we thought we'd make use of our time there and get some work done that weekend.
During a meeting with the Platte Canyon Fire Department to discuss the necessary fire mitigation, a few trees were identified as "highly recommended" for removal due to their proximity to the house and the shed (aka outhouse), how unhealthy the trees looked, and the possibility of falling during wind/weather/fire that would then damage the house. The company that will be doing tree trimming quoted us $250-$350 per tree to cut and remove. So JD and I decided to save a little dough and take on removing two of the trees.
On the list for the future....get the details on properly fueling and oiling the chainsaw to make life easier.
In the meantime, my stud of a husband manually sawed through these monsters with some help from me. This guy celebrates his birthday tomorrow and I swear he's as strong as the day I met him about 20 years ago.
While we were working on one tree, I noticed something bad - this alien-esque growth, my friends, is called mistletoe. It wasn't too large yet but was on lots of branches. Might be nice to stand under and get a kiss, but it's a parasite to a tree, and will steal the nutrients making the tree susceptible to other disease, pine beetles, and essentially fire fuel. Mistletoe can grow then burst and explode, sending it's spores to surrounding trees. Birds will also eat the mistletoe berries then clean the sticky coating off its beak by wiping it against a nearby branch thus infecting that tree/branch. There's your arbor lesson for the day, people.
A quick walk around the property and I noticed a few other infected trees. Those will need to be dealt with on another day. Want to stay a night or two at the cabin?? Will trade for tree work. Not kidding!
Cost savings: $490
SCORE!!
We also decided to save some money on part of the driveway work that is scheduled. As you can see in the picture below, there are some log posts flanking each side of the driveway. Not only are they rotted out, but the driveway entrance needs to be re-shaped and graded according to county regulations. The bid was $250 to remove and dispose of the posts and concrete. So once, again, our frugal tendencies outweighed the manual labor required to do it ourselves and we (ok, mainly J.D.) powered thru. We saved the logs thinking they can be made into benches around a fire pit.
Cost to remove: $20 trash/construction/concrete dump fee + an hours work/a few sore muscles
Cost savings: $230
SCORE AGAIN!!
And just a glimpse to see why we like being here:
It was a busy couple of days at the cabin. We had a meeting scheduled with the Designer and Architect (more to come on that) for Sunday, so we thought we'd make use of our time there and get some work done that weekend.
During a meeting with the Platte Canyon Fire Department to discuss the necessary fire mitigation, a few trees were identified as "highly recommended" for removal due to their proximity to the house and the shed (aka outhouse), how unhealthy the trees looked, and the possibility of falling during wind/weather/fire that would then damage the house. The company that will be doing tree trimming quoted us $250-$350 per tree to cut and remove. So JD and I decided to save a little dough and take on removing two of the trees.
On the list for the future....get the details on properly fueling and oiling the chainsaw to make life easier.
In the meantime, my stud of a husband manually sawed through these monsters with some help from me. This guy celebrates his birthday tomorrow and I swear he's as strong as the day I met him about 20 years ago.
 |
| J.D. attaching rope to fell the tree away from the house. |
While we were working on one tree, I noticed something bad - this alien-esque growth, my friends, is called mistletoe. It wasn't too large yet but was on lots of branches. Might be nice to stand under and get a kiss, but it's a parasite to a tree, and will steal the nutrients making the tree susceptible to other disease, pine beetles, and essentially fire fuel. Mistletoe can grow then burst and explode, sending it's spores to surrounding trees. Birds will also eat the mistletoe berries then clean the sticky coating off its beak by wiping it against a nearby branch thus infecting that tree/branch. There's your arbor lesson for the day, people.
A quick walk around the property and I noticed a few other infected trees. Those will need to be dealt with on another day. Want to stay a night or two at the cabin?? Will trade for tree work. Not kidding!
 |
| Mistletoe |
 |
| Mistletoe |
We loaded up the truck with the remnants and headed to the local slash disposal site.
Cost to remove: $10 slash dump fee + a few hours work/a few sore musclesCost savings: $490
SCORE!!
We also decided to save some money on part of the driveway work that is scheduled. As you can see in the picture below, there are some log posts flanking each side of the driveway. Not only are they rotted out, but the driveway entrance needs to be re-shaped and graded according to county regulations. The bid was $250 to remove and dispose of the posts and concrete. So once, again, our frugal tendencies outweighed the manual labor required to do it ourselves and we (ok, mainly J.D.) powered thru. We saved the logs thinking they can be made into benches around a fire pit.
Cost to remove: $20 trash/construction/concrete dump fee + an hours work/a few sore muscles
Cost savings: $230
SCORE AGAIN!!
And just a glimpse to see why we like being here:
Comments
Post a Comment