Spent April 9 and 10 Cutting down a Honeysuckle Tree in our Back Yard Which was a Mess

Last weekend I spent both Saturday and Sunday cutting down and cleaning up a volunter tree that started in our back yard by our family room a few years ago. Ok, it has been there a while as it was huge towering above the roof of our family room. The tree was a honeysuckle tree and it was huge! I did not take any pictures prior to cutting it down, but it was probably as tall as our second story house. Thus, I spent the all of Saturday cutting down the tree and most of Sunday morning and afternoon cutting up the limbs. 

 

I knew it was going to be a job and had put it off the past few springs, but decided for some reason last Saturday I would head out and begin cutting it down. I was concerned a few times I was going to blow out a window, but luckily the windows survived limbs coming down. Not that there were a few that were close, but no damage was done.

 

You can see in the picture to the left that part of the tree from this Saturday picture still shows some of the tree still up by the back corner of the family room. It was the process! Carrie came out to help with organizing limbs and snipping off the small portions of the limbs. She came out to help for a bit on Sunday too.

 

The stump of where I cut down the tree was fairly large. I have heard that honeysuckle trees are basically like weeds and that’s what I dealt with last weekend. It was a mess and had me spending the whole weekend cutting up limbs. At one point on Saturday, the chainsaw (electric) I was using stopped working where the chain would come off as I started to cut a limb. So, that required a trip out to hardware store for chain oil. Of course by the time I found a hardware store with the chain oil, it was too late to keep going, so basically I got home with the chain oil, a case of beer, and put the oil in the chainsaw, did a test, and called it a day. There were more work to be done on Sunday.

 

It was a good lesson to get rid of small trees when I see them coming up in the yard or around the house. I usually do so around the fence to get rid of anything that does not look good or might cause issues. In this case, the honeysuckle tree looked like it would be a good fit where it was growing, but it was a mess! The tree was hanging over the family room roof, rubbing against our drains, and generally causing havoc with the house. Who knows what it is doing to the already degrading cement floor in the family room, but I am sure it was not good. 

 

Good to have the tree out and basically cut up. I need to do more work to cut up some more of the small junk that came out of the top of the tree, but a lot of that is kindling for back yard fires and future camping sites. I felt pretty good following the finishing up from Sunday. My body was telling me I had worked both days as I was sore in my back and legs. It was a long two days, but felt good to finish it up and see the final results of the tree stump opening up our southeast corner of our family room.

The final result is to the picture to the left with a pile of cut up limbs and then more junk from the top of the tree. Going to work well for kindling to get fires going, but still a lot of it to go through. There might be a branch or two waiting to be cut up over there too as I was exhausted the end of Sunday last week and decided to put it all in the corner and cut it up as I am out in the back yard grilling or doing the fire pit.

 

It felt good to finally get the tree cut down and somewhat cut up. It was a large task and I am glad that Carrie helped with the process. Overall, it went well and it looks much better where that tree was coming through. Now to focus on other areas of the yard such as the front yard, that is my next goal to do some pruning and cleaning up of trees in the front up by the house. Going to be a lot of work, but I think we can get through it and improve how our home looks.

 

Here a week later and my back has recovered for the most part. See what I can do on Saturday to get after it again and begin another project that hopefully can be limited to only the one day (Saturday) of yard work. Still have a ton of gumballs to pick up in the front yeard, so that will be fun.