Limb Over Neighbor Gone

That title is the message Hick sent me about the pecan tree at Pony House. When pecan limbs last in the dooryard loomed, Hick had hired Tree-Trimmer Guy, who showed up to work with a crew of his wife and himself, dropped a limb on the corner of Pony House roof, and knocked his ladder over while in the tree with his wife gone hauling off brush, necessitating $500 Neighbor to set it up and rescue him. Here's what the tree looked like then:

 

 

Oh, there's been more to tell. Despite Tree-Trimmer Guy only being back twice since then. Not that Hick will hold that against him. We DID have bad weather with tornadoes, and rainy weather that would be unsafe for tree trimming. 

The first time he came back, Hick was working at his Storage Unit Store. He went by Pony House afterwards, and grew concerned.

"I could tell he'd been there. Not much was trimmed. But my tractor was sitting up by the alley, instead of parked between the house and garage. The guy's ladder was still against the tree. I saw his wife's sunglasses on the ground, smashed. I started to worry that maybe he fell! Maybe there was an accident, and they had to leave in a hurry. There was some brush on the ground, instead of hauled off, or wood stacked on the concrete. I asked the neighbor guy, but he said he didn't notice anything."

It might have been a week or so later when Hick next encountered Tree-Trimmer Guy. He was working when Hick went to do some work on the floor of the Master Bathroom. Tree-Trimmer Guy said nothing happened that day, they just left.

"I was working in the bathroom on the other side of the house, and I heard a big crash. I went out to look, and that darn guy had dropped a limb on the electric! Right where that limb had fallen on it before. He said he probably should have tied off that limb first. I went back inside. 

 

It wasn't long before I heard a BIGGER CRASH! I thought he'd dropped limb on the roof! I stormed outside, and that darn fool had tore the whole electric box off the side of the house! I was about to get mad this time. He said he didn't know a wire was there. He thought it was on the ground already, and it wouldn't matter. That he would just have to get the limb off the wire when he came down, and cut up the wood."

"Wait. I can understand that if he was up in a tree, looking down, that wire stretched across MIGHT look like it was on the ground..."

"Well. That's why he shouldn't be working alone! He needs a spotter. A spotter could have told him that, and guided that limb with ropes. Since I was ready to switch out the electric anyway, I didn't make a big deal about it. But I told him he doesn't need to be working there alone."

"So he was going to cut up that limb while it was laying on a live electric wire?"

"Apparently. I'm really glad now that I insisted he get that insurance policy right."

Anyhoo... Hick showed up at Pony House on Monday, and found Tree-Trimmer Guy working with two helpers. One of them Hick knows from the Storage Units. They were working on the limb over the $500 Neighbor Guy's carport. 

 

"The guys on the ground had the sections tied off, and guided them to the ground with ropes after Tree-Trimmer Guy cut them. They've got that whole limb down now. They were sawing it up when I left."

 

If you look closely, you can see Tree-Trimmer Guy out on a limb. At the end of that cut-off part. The hard hats are a nice touch, don't you think? As with any Hick picture, you get the tree, the sky, and not much else to compare it to...