Yet another tree has come down to open up the view at the new(ish) house here at Struan Farm. John and Mike are taking their time-- the clean up effort is major, these are huge trees.
Our bees and their hive boxes have been taken on a working holiday to a kiwifruit farm in Te Puke, they're not due back until early December. While they're away it makes sense to get tree work done in their vicinity. Mike had been working down in the area of the hives recently one day and found himself on their flight path, copping a sting or two. They don't want anyone working near their Queen it seems. So with a bee-free window of time available the boys decided to crack into taking down a huge tulip tree. John's vision is to have the grove of conifers remaining on this point (we think they are either spruce or fir trees, we're waiting for the cones to appear to solve that mystery).
Next (and last) to come down in this area will be a huge redwood. I'm not so sure about this but John is convinced. It's so big that some external assistance may be required for the felling. Then the clean up of this corner will be finished. Suffice it to say the firewood sheds will be replenished too.
Note: Most frequent readers know we continue to plant trees around the property on a regular basis. So while we are taking down some trees, we plant far more than we fell. I have rather robust discussions with John about the need to take down mature trees, especially when they seem to be shoring up hillsides. He isn't a fan of most of the poplars around the place planted by this father, while I argue on their behalf since the native woodpigeons/kereru love them. I am of the view that John's dad Maurie did certain (most) things for logical reasons, although he did tend to plant large trees too closely together, at least in a 75 year context. We're needing to have that longer term perspective with what we do now.
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