Trees.... Trees we want to cut down.

In our Solar Survey post, we demonstrated how the trees and buildings around you can affect your solar exposure. In general, our current solar exposure is truly great, but we can always dream, can't we?

That pesky bump on the right hand side of our survey was problematic for us on several levels: it limited both our solar and wind exposures (Ideally, you want your wind turbine to be above everything else.), they exposed our structure to a falling tree hazard and lastly, one of them was DEAD. D-E-A-D as a doornail. What is a doornail anyway?

Ryan called every tree man and yard he could find near our site. Four trees was not enough of a haul to even mess with.  We were at the property cutting down one of the damaged trees last week and our neighbor Mike showed up. He said, "You have a dead tree. Just call the PUD and they'll remove it for you."  Really!!!???  Seriously??!!!

These trees??    They're kind of tall. Mike went on to say that since the power lines go along the road, the PUD was invested in preventing an issue with the dead tree possibly falling over during the rough Washougal winters.


We were so disheartened that somehow we were going to have to figure out a way to cut down that dead tree ourselves.

Enter Jim Huggins of Clark PUD.   (Our new favorite man in the whole world)

We met with him and his tree man this week.

One signature on a permit and it's all set up.

The best part is that they are going to fall all four trees because the dead one is in the back and a real pain to get to.

Here is a photo of the marked trees. The dead one is the left one in the back. Right next to it is one that is dying and leaning.


They will be falling all four of these trees whole next week. We will try to be there and get a video.

For the next... year? or so, we will be chopping up these trees. We plan to give some of the firewood to our neighbors as a gesture. We will be able to use some of it but suffice it to say, we will have quite a bit of firewood if any friends or family are interested. 

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