Big Tree Fall Hard

Remember this?

Well, with a borrowed chainsaw we were able to clean up the downed limb after about three months of living with the limb in the backyard.

But there was still the issue of the rotting, ugly, dead spruce which with winter a-comin’ was again threatening our wee house, yard and pergola and has also been acting as a squirrel highway to our roof, and was also home to a squirrel nest, we were told.

Saturday we didn’t end up getting any more work done on the house, but that’s because we had some guests over to finish the work we’d started last spring.

My lovely co-worker Janet’s husband Matt is a talented rock climber and by day, a Tree Guy (technical term). We struck a deal with Matt who came over to help us take the rest of the tree down, and we agreed to handle the clean-up.

It really was dinner and a movie. 

Especially since along with their good company and cute puppy Booker, they brought venison hunted from the woods of Dogtown (a neighborhood of Gloucester) and freshly foraged Chicken of the Woods.

We prepared these to Matt’s instructions and sautéed them in a bit of butter… they were absolutely de-lish. Slightly earthy, sweeter than I expected, and something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. And though I’m not yet empowered (or educated) enough to take to the trails and make myself a foraged feast of mushrooms and the like, I certainly am inspired!

And so, now we have another downed tree in our wee yard to clean up (which will likely not happen until the end of the month as our social butterfly lineup continues this weekend with a trip to NEK for peak foliage, a wedding the following weekend in the Berkshires for some southern peak foliage, and finally a weekend jaunt to NYC). Matt told us that although our other downed tree, the juniper that Dad and Ryan took down (foolishly unsupervised) last spring can stay outside and take the moisture because of the “weird toxins” in its heartwood, the spruce will turn to punk if we don’t deal with it soon.

Anyone need some free firewood?

Seriously.