Out on a Limb

That blue spot about halfway up the tree would be The Fuzz. That green thing hanging below him is a chainsaw. You may wonder what any sane person would be doing hanging from a tree with a dangerous piece of power equipment, but don't mistake The Fuzz for a sane person. Those little blossoms we've been seeing do hold the promise of spring, but 20' is still 20'. Which of course means heat, which means fire, which means fuel, which means in this case, wood. Now it is true that wood can be obtained by driving the truck to our little wood lot in the country, but this wood is in our own back yard, kinda close like. And when one considers that my Sweetie has a desire for a bit more sun in this area, it all comes together rather nicely.
When one is in the woods, it is not usually real important how a tree falls except as a matter of convenience. One wants it close to the truck, but not on top of it. In a case like this though, it becomes a bit more critical. It's not so much how far the wood must be carried, but more a matter of not destroying one's house, or perhaps an important outbuilding. Once it is down, it's too late, it stays where it is. I think there is some sort of proverb about that. So we have a certain target area, that is a certain size, and a tree must sometimes be adjusted so it falls within those parameters. That is what is happening here.
In my younger days, (not that I'm over the hill yet) I got a hold of some cool things that one can strap to one's legs and, in theory, climb right up any old tree like a cat, or a squirrel maybe. It can be pretty exciting and I came close to killing myself a couple times. But that is another story. This time I had concerns about some of these limbs removing the windows in the West Wing. I also hoped to save our pitiful little pear tree. My well thought out plan was to remove most of these larger limbs and maybe take out the top before dropping the remnant neatly into the allotted space. All went according to plan until with one more limb to remove, I was betrayed by my chainsaw.
Operating a chainsaw in a tree is the sort of thing I tend to take rather seriously, nice and slow and deliberate like. I almost cut part of my foot off once, but that's another story too. But nothing like that happened here. This was merely a case of equipment failure. No matter what I tried, I could not get the thing to work. I checked the gas, I tried all the appropriate words, still nothing. There was nothing to do but return to the ground. Well, I needed the rest anyway. I probably don't have to mention, that on the ground, it cranked with the second pull. Such is life.We cut up the limbs, and will leave the rest for another day. Probably just drop it like it is. It looks like it will be OK now.
The Fuzz is a bit of a tree hugger actually. Here he is out on a limb contemplating his next move.