A different kind of Bob
A different kind of Bob.
Our property line ash tree had a main branch that began leaning on our shed. Bob noticed this on Saturday afternoon around 4-5PM & walked up to our front door. I met him before he got to the door. He was actually on a mission to be a good neighbor & offer help.
We walked over to the back of the shed for about 10-15 minutes immediately after the walk-up.. where some finger-pointing started for a bit.. bringing up the past.. reminding him of the past.. and then he started to understand that we both just wanted to see a better picture in our backyards with this tree. He kept re-iterating that he just really wanted to help & be a good neighbor. I had to trust this, and I knew he could be definitely helpful.. especially with the functional chainsaw offer.
I informed him that my children were here today, and I would be interested in working on it tomorrow at noon. We adjourned, and I came back a little early on Sunday morning.
I decided to show up early on Sunday at 11AM & began removing ALL the pole saw-compatible branches & the lopper-compatible branches. He had said he had a chainsaw.. He did, he came with a very nice Stihl Farm Boss. He started it, and I ran it for 5 cuts. I accidentally dropped the first one on my galvanized garbage can lid, oh well. After that, we successfully got the branch off the compost site & onto the ground.
At that point, I handed the chainsaw back to Bob & was the clean-up person for about 10 intense minutes with a huge chainsaw & Bob. He did exactly what he was supposed to, and I borrowed him a $250 podium ladder.. along with a story about how I broke the previous one doing dangerous tree work. He was extremely happy to be able to be up 9 feet in the air on a podium.. doing his pole saw work on the same tree.. to clear the dead branches that loom over his pool area & dog area.
I decided to give Bob all the large logs, minus one I kept & put in The Enderman. Bob was very happy to receive all the wood & have the dead branches gone.
It was difficult trusting him, but I know he does this for a living.. working on manual labor projects with a team. This was nothing different. He did crack a joke.. saying, "People would think we know what we're doing" .. I vaguely remember agreeing & stating we were doing everything carefully & quickly. I was in charge of smashing & hauling 50-80 pound logs after he made about 5-6 extremely large cuts.
So, the times on Saturday would be approximately 10:50AM to maybe 3:00PM .. I can still hear Bob cutting up the logs at 2:50PM.. but at this point, it should be pretty quiet on the rear Shedcam. He mowed that area to vacuum up all the little dead sticks around 1:30-1:45PM. He finished chain-sawing the big logs around 2:00PM-3:20PM & is now setting up to use my large Werner podium ladder & more of the dead branches. So, we'll be sure to archive 3-4PM on 10/1 as well. We're not sure when he'll be done, but the agreed instructions for the $250 podium ladder was to lean it on the compost site at the end.. where the camera is. He agreed & thanked repeatedly. I think he realized how nice the ladder was.. just like the chainsaw. It looks like around 3:45PM he decided to actually clean up all the mini Ash trees around the tree stump. This was a good act. Shows respect for the tree & resets it. Good job Bob.
It was a good humanitarian mission. Bob called it the ugly, neutral neighbor tree. Exactly on the property line, and a target for the Emerald Ash Borer. Tons of dead branches on my other Ash tree. Really looking to say goodbye to the Ash tree pair when I have the financial means.
Good job Dad. Good job Bob.