What’s An Arborist?

A couple of weeks back Kevin and I noticed some of our trees in the backyard were growing out of control and getting dangerously close to the highline wires leading to our house. Kevin said he would just borrow Randy’s tree trimmer and do it himself. To which I promptly replied, “Are you crazy? There is no way I’m going for that!” So I placed a call to Amarillo Arborlogical. We had used them before to trim our big trees out front and as a matter of fact they have been out twice already spraying our trees for bugs and worms, but that’s another post. I guess you noticed we didn’t have plums and now you know why. So I made an appointment for them to come out. We have really been enjoying our patio this summer as the trees had made a complete canopy over it so it was shaded all day. I had no idea how much of our trees they would cut back. According to Wikipedia Arboriculture (pronounced /ˈɑrbərɨkʌltʃər/), is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants. It is both a practice and a science. It looks like a lot of fun to me. I used to love to climb trees when I was a young girl. We had a huge willow tree in our front yard and I loved climbing way up in the top and hiding among the branches and feeling the breeze as it swept through the willows. So watching the arborists was a lot of fun. We pulled out the lawn chairs and just watched them work. They use ropes and pulleys and swing from branch to branch to do their magic. Here are the photos I took.

I don’t know if you can tell or not, but he was about thirty feet up in the tree. They are always harnessed in for safety, but I’m sure it is still dangerous. Notice the hard hat as well.

Here’s the other guy that was up in the trees. He was standing on neighbor’s garage roof. Can you see how entwined the branches are with the wires? Now you see the problem.

Back to guy one, it was fun to watch them swing from branch to branch. I wanted to try.

Papi was the only dog out in the yard and he wasn’t sure what to think of all the commotion. The hair on his neck kept bristling up. He didn’t bark though, but he sure stayed close to Kevin and I.

Guy one had come down and little and was taking a break, maybe assessing where to cut next. That branch he is standing on is now gone.

Guy two now harnessed up in the tree and swinging from branch to branch. It was so awesome to watch.

Guy one, almost done and getting ready to come down, but still needs a little more trimming on that branch he is standing on. He would cut off a big piece and then lower it down to the guy on the ground. The branches they were cutting off were as large as some trees in the new housing developments.

Guy two, coming down.

How do the trees look all trimmed up you ask? Kind of naked and bare, but we are getting used to it. We still have a nice shaded patio, but not completely all day like before.