Goodbye, Ole Hickory

We said goodbye to the Shag bark Hickory that has been residing in our yard way before we built our house in 1972.  The critter was dying from the top and was creating a hazard to our house.


WV Tree Service out of Gassaway arrived on Wednesday morning.  The company is owned by a local fellow, Gary Ellyson.  Judy taught Gary in Senior English at the high school.  His older brother, Kurt, headed the removal team that included Leroy Goodson, Jim Stokley, and Andrew Blizzard. (The late Gene Ellyson, a Gilmer County barber for decades is the Ellyson boys father.)


The climber on the team was Leroy.  It was neat to see how he scurried up the ole hickory.  His job was to attach a rope to the tree so to make certain the tree falls in the planned direction.
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The other team members busily attached the other end to their truck.

 Every project needs an observer.  This one is no exception.

After making the wedge shaped cut into the heartwood, with a pull of the truck,....

 ..the tree came tumbling down.

This is the time when the real work begins.  The limbs were placed in the chipper.

The main truck was sawed into manageable sections. 

Many sections were extremely heavy.  These guys knew how to load the larger sections by lifting them with the bucket on the truck.

 The cleanup and of our tree was amazing.

When they left, they not only raked and blew the sawdust away, but filled any divots with soil and reseeded with grass.

What a quality job!  We are so happy with WV Tree Service.  They are a wonderful crew.