A Real Tree-hugger!

This guy is a real tree-hugger. 

Today we had several big trees in our yard taken down to give us more light.  Here's what it looked like before we took down three giant cedars.

And here's what it looks like after!  More open, but still a lot of trees...

We were fascinated with the process.  I took tons of pictures and videos.  

The tree-guy climbed up the trunk and limbed the tree as he went:

higher...

and higher...

and HIGHER...Yikes!  

He said it's actually easier the higher he gets because it's easier to hold on when the tree is narrower.  No thank you!

Then he cuts the top off...

I got some great videos, but they take FOREVER to load onto the blog and I'm not patient enough...

and starts to climb back down, cutting sections as he goes.

He ties a rope to each section and his helpers pull it as it falls so the log lands in the right place.

This is from the second tree, showing one of the bigger sections. The earth shook from the impact!

Here's a look at the cross section.  We're hoping to sell the cedar and recoup some of the cutting cost.  

We also had a maple and three other large evergreens cut, but they didn't need to be limbed since they could fall into the woods.  Well the maple fell into the yard, but the evergreens fell into the woods.

 When the last tree fell, the impact splattered mud all over the side of the house!  

Fortunately, it washed right off.  

The kids were all at my parents' house while this was happening.  When Ben got home, he was very upset that we had cut down ALL the trees.  He's been indoctrinated by the Lorax, I think.  As you can see from the after picture at the beginning, we have no shortage of trees on our property!