Got the bug.

And by that I mean,  the Emerald Ash Borer.

And we're not alone.

The chap I hired to come today and cut down one of the "three sisters" as we used to call them,  has been way too busy cutting down ash trees as fast as folks can hire him.  Not his favourite thing to do, as he'd much prefer to be trimming trees and other general arboreal upkeep.

This was the beast.

 We estimate at around 75 years old,  which would have meant maybe another lifespan of 25+ years or so?  Needless to say,  no plans to cut it down in the foreseeable future.  Not my future anyway.

There was a certain amount of studying going on even before climbing the tree.  Best to try and plan these things while on the ground I suppose.

I took a mess of pictures,  but you know the drill.   Climb tree.  Tie off.  Cut chunks off.  Lower them to the ground.

Preferably without coming into contact with that expensive roof we had installed a couple years ago.

You can see all the dead branches.

Anyway,  that last pic is early afternoon,  and they're just about done.  Gonna miss the extra shade,  but that particular tree had this one dead branch that extended out precariously over the driveway.  No bueno.

Now,  in case you don't feel like reading that wiki article,  I'll show you first hand what these little buggers do.

More or less self explanatory.  They bore into the "cambium",  and literally choke the tree to death.  Seems to me the cambium sends nutrients down the tree from above, and ultimately makes a new growth ring.

Almost as bad as putting down an ageing pet.  Well, maybe not quite.  But we're seriously running out of trees around here.   Since we moved in over twenty years ago,  we've cut down five mature trees due to disease,  as well as another two as a result of poor location.  (Between the two houses.  Not good.)

So,  that's all I'll be 'sharing' today.   Last week we were in Vancouver.  Maybe I'll go on about that in a day or two.

Thanks for stopping by.