Neighbors and Big Trees

I think any project of this kind certainly can bring challenges from neighbors. But I’ve been lucky in that my only neighbor, Eva, has been very much in favor of my project. On our side of the property line was a chain link fence and on her side was a wooden fence and in between them had grown a very big mesquite tree. Eva agreed to remove that tree and even went ahead and removed her wooden fence so that our bulldozer would have unfettered access to the tree.

Tip: We first cut the tree down quite a bit before using the bulldozer to drag the stump out of the ground. My tree guy said that instead of cutting the tree right down to the ground that he would leave a 5 foot section of the base of the tree so that it could be nudged using the bucket of the bulldozer, which would shake the roots loose. That was a good idea. Ultimately, I was there to watch as a heavy duty chain was tied to the stump and the whole thing was pulled out of the ground. I did keep a reasonable distance away during that process in the event the chain were to snap or something–that might be a really bad day! You can see the mesquite in the foreground of the photo below.

I also wanted to remove the much larger Chinese elm, I think, that you can see in the background but weeks prior Eva was hoping just to trim it. My tree guy, Lance said that you really couldn’t trim it because it was already on its last legs and likely wouldn’t survive when the footings were poured for the block wall that is eventually to be built in place of the chain link fence that you can see laying on the ground adjacent to the mesquite. When I got to the site to watch the mesquite be removed, Eva had apparently changed her mind and agreed to also remove the Chinese elm, which I think was a wise decision. After all, such a tree could collapse on any of our structures. Plus, the tree gave no shade as in Arizona, trees on the northern side of the property do nothing for shade as the sun is always in a southern degree.

You can still see a few feet of the stump, so perhaps we are just awaiting Southwest Gas to come do its job before removing the rest of the tree.