When Work Does Not Go As Expected
A stubborn tree
I remember many times when a plan did not go through the process quite as smoothly as I thought it would. Any time we put a plan into motion, there’s a series of events that need to happen in a particular order. When one of those steps doesn’t cooperate, things can change quickly.
For me, I build a plan in my mind rather than on paper. That’s just the way my mind works. First, I see the end result in my mind. Then I see it in various stages of completion. From there, I know what tools will be needed, and I come up with an estimate of how long it should take.
I once asked a neighbor of ours — a farmer who also did carpentry on the side — how he would change the slope of our roof if I wanted to add an entryway. As a side note, my dad hired him to do most of his construction and remodeling, and I always put myself right there beside him. I have a mind that needs to learn everything I can about whatever I’m involved in. Again, that’s just the way I’m made.
His answer surprised me. He said he would just get up there and start to build.
That stuck with me, because in many ways, I’m the same way.
This next project wasn’t a building project, though — it was tree removal. We burn wood along with a central propane furnace. As I mentioned in a previous writing, my wife and I like wood heat, and we also enjoy the exercise it gives us.
There was a huge dead oak tree on a steep hillside that I wanted to cut down. I planned to have it fall uphill, where it seemed to have a more balanced center. I put a large notch on the uphill side and started cutting from the opposite side. When I was about a third of the way in, I added wedges. I cut closer, pounded the wedges in farther, and eventually got within a few inches of the notch.
Nothing moved.
“What the heck?”
I didn’t want to leave it and let the wind finish the job. Even though no one was likely to be around, it still didn’t sit right with me to leave a tree like that hanging on its own terms. So what’s the next step when the plan doesn’t work?
I enlisted my brother to help. We helped each other a lot back in the early years. I had a long cable, which we attached partway up the tree by tossing it over a limb. We hooked a come-along between another tree and the cable and started cranking.
Still nothing.
Then the cable on the come-along started to come apart.
Now what?
We detached the cable and pulled the wedges. I cut a notch on the low side of the tree and then deepened the notch on the uphill side. Finally, there was a cracking sound, and the tree went down — not uphill as planned, but down the low side of the hill.
It wasn’t the most convenient spot to work it up, but it went down without injury or damage. The only casualty was a ruined come-along.
I’ve cut hundreds of trees over my lifetime, but this one stayed with me. It challenged me. It reminded me that just because you plan something out doesn’t mean the plan will always be successful — and sometimes the lesson comes not from getting your way, but from adapting when things don’t.
Next, I have a video from our place when I had the Amish take down our silos after the barn removal. Even they do not always have things go as expected. As the YouTube links, you possibly might need to click on the lower left of the video to actually watch it, not the start button. I tried it and the start button actually worked for me.