The raccoons have been officially evicted. I'd cry over their losing their home, but just can't bring myself to do so. What I could cry over is the loss of my trees. I posted a couple of weeks ago here about the upcoming necessity of removing a large wild cherry tree which was pushing (hard) against my neighbor's fence and dropping numerous limbs onto her property. That particular tree also happened to be the hangout of a family of masked bandits who trip-tripped-tripped all over my roof at night.Before tree removal
The raccoons' nest was located in the thicker, ivy-draped branches of the taller, sort of wispy-looking-at-the-top, tree behind the tree in the foreground. Very sadly, the first tree, a dogwood planted over 20 years ago, had to be removed to allow access to the troublesome wild cherry. I estimate that the wild cherry was approximately 35 feet tall and, for safety's sake, it had to be cut from the top down, so one of those "cherry picker" buckets was used. That particular piece of equipment is mounted to the back of a very big truck which had to get as close to the tree as possible. Therefore, the dogwood had to go. (See first and last photos; my yard looks naked in the latter.) The west side of my carport and the room behind it are now bereft of the tempering shade of the dogwood and the wild cherry. I expect that my air conditioning bill will increase significantly before the heat of the summer is over.
The tree removal team was a group of most pleasant young men (I don't know how old the oldest was but, at my age, just about everyone is younger.) I had been in the yard photographing the beginning of the process and mentioned to the foreman that I was blogging about the raccoons. When the overhanging limbs had been removed and the raccoon nest exposed, he came to my door to ask if I'd like to have some photos of the nest before it was cut down. Of course, I said "yes," and handed over my camera. Looks like a big bird's nest, doesn't it?
Oh, for those readers who may have some concern about the raccoons, no raccoons were injured in the removal of this tree. In fact, no raccoons were to be seen anywhere in the vicinity. Do you suppose they overheard me contracting with the tree man last week and high-tailed it?
I have a couple of other photos of the nest, taken from the ground, which better display its rounded nature, but I'm saving them for Sky Watch Friday this week.
The tree workers are due to return tomorrow, when they will begin to work on removing three additional trees even further back in the yard. These, also, are fence-pushing wild cherry trees which drop even more limbs onto my neighbor's lawn. I decided that while I had access to the tree-chopper-downers, I'd get rid of those, too. I'm going to have a very sun-filled (and hot) back yard in a few days.After Tree Removal
Ugly, isn't it?
