Big new tree

Busy day Friday.

So for review, here's what the old spruce tree looked like on its very last day, just before that day's crew of men arrived to remove its diseased and blown half way off its roots self from the front yard.

Here'a a view of the yard early yesterday morning.

Two things there, one the house looks pretty dang bare without its counterpoint tree out front.  Two is the utility markings, gas in yellow on the left and water in blue (only one flag) over there on the right.

And maybe a three, you might be able to spot the orange flag center.  That flag was given to us by the tree farm guy for placement to indicate where in the yard we wanted the new tree.

I stood in a specific spot out in the cul de sac to get this photo, this perspective may return later on in this post and many, many more times over the years.  I can find that spot.

The men and their machine make their FIRST appearance.

That thing is called a tree spade.  A tree much larger than the usual balled and burlapped root ball transplant requires a tree spade to move the entire root area and the soil around it.

You can't put that much material into the ground at the new location without preparation.  The tree spade which is going to do the transplant shows up at the new location and digs the hole where the new tree will be going.

Here we are backed up to the tree location with the tree spade moved to vertical and deployed for some, well, spade work.

It's a combination of hydraulics and belt/chain drive and those huge spades drive right down into the ground.

When the men pull the spade up out of the ground this time the dirt comes along leaving behind an opening in a shape that the spade is going to fit into exactly upon its return.

The men leave for the first time leaving behind the plywood on the lawn that they will be driving on upon their return and a carefully fenced opening in the yard.

The opening is 90 inches (7 and a half feet) in diameter and about 4 feet deep.

We decided that we want the new tree in the same general location in the yard as the spruce.  We want the new tree lined up to the extent possible with the highest point in the roof, about where the spruce was but we have moved 6 feet further away from the house.

Partly this is absolutely necessary as there is still a lot of wood in the ground where the old tree was, plenty of roots, some fairly large, planting right there would be harder than 6 feet further out.

Secondarily, the old spot almost certainly still contains traces of the canker that infected the spruce.  This isn't VERY worrisome as it is a canker specific to Colorado Blue Spruce, we won't be getting one of those again.

And thirdly, we think the old tree was too close to the house anyway.

A bit further from the house will be way better.

The men had to drive back to Cambridge, presumably have some lunch and then go out into the field where we had been last Saturday to redo the whole procedure that we had just watched in the front yard.  Out at the farm they arrayed the spade around a 21 foot white pine, the one we selected last week.  They dug it up then wrapped the whole tree in canvas and brought it back here.

The big new tree arrives.

The largest tree that they plant in the balled and burlapped method is 16 feet.  This 21 footer isn't even the biggest one we considered when we were out there last week.  At one point we had a 23 footer marked.  In the end this one definitely is the one we agreed that we like the most.

Here most of the canvas is off but some of the branches are still bound up.

The truck and spade are back into the same spot where they were this morning and the tree is standing upright, getting ready to be lowered into the hole.

Here we go, the spades are starting to come out.

The four spades are on a ring which at this point splits to allow the machine to move away from the tree.

 A view from next to the house as the tree emerges.

 And there it stands as the men finish up the planting part.

 And finally the ropes and ties are removed and the branches begin to seek their natural positions in the new location.

 Business completed, the tree spade leaves the premises, it is doubtful that we will be needing it again.

From pretty much the same spot as picture number 3, the house has been transformed.

We have a tree in our yard again.

A BIG new tree.  It has been there about half an hour and it is already taller than the house.

This one was taken this morning with some early morning sunshine.

It is also of note, we think, that we have a beautiful bush there at the corner of the house that we have only very rarely seen for most of the time we have lived here as it was always out of sight behind the big spruce.

The tree planting was a big success, we could have sold tickets.  Several neighbors came over and followed along with the whole process and since then lots of others have trooped on by to get a look.

WE, we LOVE it.