I have three dying lilacs in my back yard. The trunks lean out and most, while they are not dead, produce only leaves. They’re also over 15 feet tall. When they do produce blooms, it’s out of season. I’ve had blooms appear as late as November. Not many flowers, and they don’t last as long as spring blooms.

So I’m cutting them down almost to the ground. What portions of trunks left will sprout and they will be easier to maintain. The current trunks are 6 to 7 inches in diameter. The heartwood centers of many of the trunks have rotted out. Some trunks are rotting at the base; I can wiggle them.

Two winters ago, a trunk fell over. I used my chainsaw to cut it into 6 foot lengths so I could haul it to the street. Sometimes I say “haul it to the curb,” but my street is curb-less. Most of my immediate neighborhood has no curbs or sidewalks. We’re not due to get any yet, but we will, when the city gets around to redoing our streets.

Some of my male friends want me to call them so they can use the chainsaw for me. I keep reminding them that I’ve been using the saw for 10 years without problems. It’s electric and the second I release pressure on the trigger, it stops. I don’t have steel-toed shoes, but I’m not wearing flip-flops or sandals either.

I have my safety glasses, ear plugs and long pants, and I try to keep the fence at my back, so I can see anyone approaching. Same as when I use my table-saw. I place it so I can see out the garage so I’m not surprised by someone coming to my rear.

I ordered a couple of new chains for the saw and I’ll use the old ones to learn how to sharpen them. I’ll have someone at the maker-space show me how. No, I have not been using a dull chain for 10 years. That’s a good way to get hurt. The saw usually only got used when old man maple or old lady evergreen dropped large branches in my yard. The last branch was was from the maple and was 25 feet long.

The first branch that dropped into my yard was from the spruce or whatever evergreen the neighbor’s tree is. The branch was 14 feet long and destroyed my clothesline poles by falling across the lines. We have have an 8-foot maximum length for branches put on the street for pick-up. So they have to be cut. Since I’m just a little old lady, I generally cut them into 4-foot lengths.

The straighter of the lilac pieces will go to the bottom of the woodpile to dry out for future burning. I’ll be shifting the pile to the side fence so the neighbors can grab some without coming into my yard. It will take a few days to shift. In addition to the new lilac wood, there’s still a tree’s worth of split firewood from before I bought the house 18 years ago.

Over the the years, I’ve burned or given away a tree’s worth. When I bought the house, the wood from two trees was stacked behind the garage. That was a woodpile than ran about 10 feet across the rear of the garage, by 3 feet tall by 2 rows deep. Each section of trunk or branch was about 15 inches deep/long. Long after my kids toss me into a nursing home, the new owners will have firewood.

I haven’t burned as much as I could, because for a long time, and maybe even still, you couldn’t bring your own wood from home to a campsite at the State parks. That was enforced to curtail the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer.

Once I get the wood done, I’ll be working more on my craft room and get back to crafting. I have more classes planned for the maker-space including melt and pour soapmaking and book-binding. I’ll keep you posted.