About that box elder we were taking down branch by branch...

March. We are due for snow. But the sun shines more every day. This means we will soon have leaves on trees. It is much more difficult to fell trees when the leaves come out. So Michael put me back behind the wheel of the car while he wielded the chain saw. The remaining part of the box elder leaned in the opposite direction than where we wanted it to fall...and it was allllmmmooost coming my way when things came apart. Or at least the rope did. The tree balanced for about 4 seconds (that was a long 4 seconds) before it fell the way it had been wanting to fall all along.

We had moved Irene's car as a precaution. It was good that we took off those initial branches, as the only real damage was to the metal roofing. No broken timbers!

We unbent the roofing, Michael hammered in the roofing nails that had been jolted out of place and our wood pile is now larger. When next it rains we will see if we develop leaks anywhere. We will have to do some better planning before we take down the other trees that are trying to eat our garage! Thank goodness this box elder only took a nibble.