I finally cut down my 500th tree this morning

It was a big, dead white oak in a backyard over in the West End. I didn't even realize I was keeping count until I looked at my logbook from the last few years and added it all up. Hitting that number kind of stopped me for a second. When I started, I was just trying to get through the day without dropping a limb on a fence. Now, I can look at a tree and just know how it's going to come down, where the weight is, how the hinge needs to cut. It's not about the number itself, it's about the hours and the focus it took to get there without a single major incident. Makes you think about all the different wood, all the different yards, all the different problems you solved. Anyone else hit a personal count that made them pause and look back?

2 comments

2 Comments

henry_hernandez9d ago

Knowing when to pull the whole thing" is the easy part. The real skill is making it come down exactly where you want it, every single time, without wrecking anything. That's what 500 trees without a major incident means.

leo6039d ago

Ever think about how many of those trees you've saved instead of cut down? That's the real skill, knowing when to prune and when to pull the whole thing. The count that matters is the ones still standing because you knew better.