Unexpected Easter Fun

I was in the garage this morning getting ready to go out to lunch with my wife and my father-in-law who had not yet arrived.  Crash - Crack - Boom!  I heard it happening but waited until it was quiet to look out.  A huge limb had broken off the big Silver Maple in the back yard and became stuck on another branch - barely.

First of all I had mistakenly thought this was like any other Sunday* and stores would be open for shopping for a reception we have coming up soon and getting dirt at Ace to start filling in the garden.  With that plan scrapped we were going to go out to lunch then assemble another large shelf downstairs like the 3 others that we have.

Back to the story:  About 5 minutes after it happened, FIL arrived.  I sent them to lunch anyway, not much they could do here, and I tried to figure out what to do.  My neighbor, Jane, was home and offered to go get her sister's pruning saw.  That turned out to be a huge help.  I managed to prune as many of the little branches off as possible to lighten it.  While I was out front piling up sticks another neighbor, Bea, said hello.  I asked her if she had any rope, since I nor Jane had any.  She came down a few minutes later with some clothesline that I thought should work. 

More pruning and more cleanup so I wouldn't trip then I climbed a ladder and tied it to the branch as high as I could reach.  That higher leverage made dislodging it very easy.  Boom!  Perfect, it fell between the garage and house missing everything.  It didn't even take down the (unused) phone line, but it did bounce off it pretty dramatically.  I should have taken the pics before I picked up all the branches to show the full effect, but first things first.  Posting this was on my mind - because I grabbed the camera, but there was work to be done.


Shortly after, a small thunderstorm passed through so these pics of it fully cleaned up - except for the large piece to be cut up and removed later - are from inside the porch.  Other neighbors have a chain saw so hopfully all will be gone soon.  I really like being a part of a neighborhood.

*The previous post I had scheduled earlier last week because I figured I would forget it was Easter.