SEATTLE TREE CARE TO TAKE DOWN CHERRY TREE

Well, the old girl came down on Tues. July 14th.  I shared a lovely tree ceremony/ritual with friends (social distancing of course) on my birthday celebrating tree and her journey on this planet.  The above photo is not a good one but...if you look very closely you can see a man in an orange shirt up in the cherry tree canopy getting ready to make the first cut.

 

        

Above photo = the y-shaped section (also known as 'the crotch') is good wood for making bowls so I will be dropping that part off with a woodworking artist to turn into a bowl.   

Above photo = This is the stump grinder used to grind down the stump into a pile of lovely powder I will now use as mulch in my garden.  This particular stump grinder is very handy as it is small and therefore easier to access yards with narrow gates.  It is made in Australia and is the only one in this part of the state.  The arborist told me the company mechanic hates this thing because whenever it breaks he can only get parts from Australia.

 
Above photo = We watched this last section come down.  The next door neighbor felt the impact from her upstairs room!

Above photo = The inner wood is the heartwood; it is the oldest part of the tree and dead.  The orange colored ring is the sap wood which is where the tree sucks water out of the ground.  The thin outer ring is the cambium, creating a new ring of age (her 2020 ring).  Once the tree was down the arborist was able to count the rings.  Turns out the tree was at least 75 yrs old which he said is pretty rare for a fruit tree (it still produced pie cherries that the birds ate) and that the tree was big for a backyard cherry tree.  She didn't have any rot and was very healthy for her incredible age.  My miller/sawyer picked up the tree today, Monday July 20th, and she will be milled tomorrow.  He invited me to the mill to watch the process and of course I said yes.  Photos of the milling process to come!