18 trees – the end
Taking down trees has been a main theme of my blog.
Hundreds have come down over the last 16 years. It’s gotten rather tiresome and expensive.
The last trees to go down were the 18 surrounding the power line to the house. From the main line on the road, the power goes to a pole near the house, then underground and comes up to the electrical box. There were still to many so Joe and I marked the 18 and he went to work. Cost? $600.
Joe climbing and cutting – November 17, 2025
Joe dropped the trees and I tried dragging some of the slash up to the road. He could grab like an entire tree’s worth of slash in one hand.
Joe cut the logs in 8-foot lengths and stacked them near the road. Wood for 2027. For a time when I won’t be there.
The slash line was almost 40-feet long.
Joe cutting the 18 – November 17, 2025
Huh?
Weird things started to happen. The new neighbor’s ‘wife’ or whatever she is began filming us as we worked on the property. DEFINITELY my property. But she stood there and filmed. Joe didn’t like it but didn’t say anything.
After Joe finished the 18 trees in the front, he went to the back and took down some small lodgpoles that were getting a little too big.
Now, people who read my blog know I don’t name names. Well, except for Joe. He’s man enough to take it. The new neighbor earned himself the name of ‘Mr. Summer Job.’ More on that later. I don’t have a name for ‘wife’ yet. I guess she’s not important enough to get a name like ‘Mr. I’m an Engineer’ and ‘Mrs. Curley Can’t Spell’ did. Oh, wait! I know a good name.
Mr. Summer Job (MSJ) and Preggers on Ice (POI) stood on their balcony and filmed us while we worked in the back yard. That made Joe even madder. Joe has a temper, an axe and a chainsaw.
MSJ got his name because the second time I met them, Joe was working on the 18. We were trying to figure out the boundary line and trying to figure out if the 4 trees between his shed and my fence were on my side or his.
Joe told me he’d charge me $100 to take down the 4 trees. That’s a BARGAIN.
MSJ said he didn’t need anyone to take down trees because he had a summer job one year and learned how. He said the trees were healthy and no reason to take them down. Then he shifted and asked if Joe could take the trees down without stepping on his property.
He mentioned that we had taken down trees that were on HIS property. I pointed to the pile of logs and the line of slash and told him to pick one or two. Joe walked away.
Slash trouble
Trees aren’t the problem – the slash is. I talked to one guy and he quoted $300. He was a no show. The second guy quoted $500. He was a no-show. Joe gave me the number of a friend who works in forest management and drives an electric car. The kid quoted $887 and proceeded to tell me how to live my life up there on the top of Shadow Mountain. I told him I’d get in touch.
Finally I asked Joe – give me a company. Give me a company name. He said call Davey Tree. I called them 5 minutes after Joe recommended them. I explained the situation, sent him a picture of the line of perfectly stacked branches and there was a beat of silence. He said, “Why didn’t you call me 2 hours sooner? I’ve had a crew sitting in Evergreen with nothing to do. We could’ve done this for cheap.”
He booked me a slot for the next day and we fixed a time. A crew with a large truck, even bigger chipper and three guys showed up. They assessed the pile, triple checked that there was no wire or anything that would mess up the chipper. There wasn’t. Joe has scruples around slash piles being done right.
So, I timed them. From the moment they started the chipper to the moment they shut it off. 12:58 for $1020. Sometimes you have to throw money at a problem. I was happy, they all made easy money.
Oh, FFS
A few days later, MSJ came down into the Slightly Unenchanted Forest while I was breaking kindling for 2026.
So, that’s a no-no. Never cross a ROW or walk across someone’s property. Always, always walk or drive down the driveway. So he comes walking up and starts talking and he’s got his annoying dog loose, running around sniffing and being a nuisance. He asked about the rocks where the old driveway was. He asked if he could have them.
- Let the record show that I said NO.
I told him there were rocks at the base of the new driveway that are about half the size. He looked at them and asked what I wanted for them. I told him take down the 4 trees and he can have the rocks at the BOTTOM of the driveway. But leave the ones up on top the driveway alone.
He started it, I finished it
I can smell a fight coming. I dug up the old survey on the property and called the person who did one of the surveys dated 2000. He still works as a surveyor! He did some research and sent another surveyor out to mark the south border of the property. We chatted for a minute but he wanted to get to work. POI came over to him while he was working and asked what he was doing. Later, he told me she was polite.
He marked the property line with stakes with orange tape and placed rebar markers deep into the ground. The line was set. One problem is that Sandy Lane has grown. Grown 9 feet onto the property, most likely from the road grader that clears snow in the winter. He marked the spot with both wood and tape and with rebar. It’s not an issue I want to pick at.
That evening MSJ and POI closely inspected the stakes and the rebar. Looking up and down the property, checking out the line of sight. I had paid for an official assessment of the property lines. No app on your phone is going to take precedence over a bought-and-paid-for survey from a reputable surveyor. Cost? $650.
A week went by and I was moving wood from the shed to the pile. MSJ came out and started talking about the survey lines. He admitted he was wrong. In the psychology of things, a man telling a woman he was wrong is supposed to have some cosmic weight to it. I already know that game and I don’t play.
When I didn’t bite he mentioned there were a few trees I still needed to take down.
One thing about these ‘neighbors’ is their ambush technique. Always walking across property. Charming? Absolutely. Creepy? Spot-on. More than one area neighbor has mentioned the inconsistencies and weird vibe and the loose dog.
The end of a beautiful frienship
When I talked to the first real estate agent, she lacked some ‘finesse’ in handling people who are in for a BIG surprise. Selling a house in this day and age (remember, the last house I sold was in 2009. The last house I bought was in 2010) isn’t like when my ex and I bought our first house in 1984. I was told the house wouldn’t go on the market until I moved out. There are more elegant ways to say that. So, all wound up, I started making calls, looking, worrying, getting stressed out.
I sent Joe a text saying that the wood on the property needed to go. Now all that wood is his. Down in the Slightly Unenchanted Forest he cut those trees from the neighbor’s property. Those belong to him and he gives them to his mom. I told him he could have the 18. He said he’d think about it. I told him it was going to be first-come-first-serve. I was on the clock now. He responded with “It’s hot and I don’t respond to harsh texts. Good luck.”
He’d said before he didn’t want to come up to the house because he was concerned that if MSJ said something as he’s wont to do, that Joe might get himself in trouble. I can respect that. I hate to lose a friend that did so much work for me and at incredibly reasonable prices. I also overpaid him when I knew he was in dire financial need. That’s what friends do. He had an axe that was held together by duct tape and we went to Ace and bought a high-quality one that wood crumbled with the slightest down swing. Joe didn’t believe in splitters; he lined up 20 pieces of blocked wood and let loose. It was super fun to watch.
I wish him well. Always. He’s a good person. Always growing, always working on that positive attitude and self-reflection. MSJ? Yah, watch that one.