What a mauling

Awhile back we had some storms that knocked out power for a day, two days in a row. Luckily they got the juice back on at night. My dog sitter was over and had to endure it, and did so like a champ. So during the repairs, they cut a bunch of limbs in my back neighbors yard. Some fell as well, I’m guessing. I wasn’t there.

This used to be a solid wall of green, all pecan trees, that shaded my yard in the mornings and blocked the view of the neighbors house (and his mine).

As the spring turned into summer, the foliage wasn’t a thick, but still decent:

No more. They are doing maintenance along the electric lines, making sure what happened in the spring doesn’t happen again. That’s a good thing, in a way. They’ve had crews out here the last few weeks trimming.

Trimming isn’t a good word. I think “Butchering” would be better. They are absolutely clobbering the trees.

Images don’t do it justice. They mauled those trees. Supposedly they are an arborist company. Yeah. And these ones are far from the worst. Bad as it looks, I and my neighbor got off easy. One of the neighbors trees was cut so much that it’s a collection of bare branches with only one sticking up that has leaves on it.

It looks like shit.

When they did this to the area around my old house in Richardson, brutalizing one of my pecans, I was furious.

Look, I get it. It’s a preventative measure. And I’m no fan of “topping” mature trees. But if you are going to chop them up, top them properly – meaning all branches, so they are even. Instead of leaving one sad branch sticking up with foliage, just cut it down. Seriously. Most of the ones they did that to were in awful shape anyhow. Now, the damn things are going to croak and the neighbors will have to cut them down anyhow. Or not. Many will just leave them up to rot.

They should have come through and told the homeowners that they are going to cut down all these overgrown trees along the power lines, or at least gave them a modest fee to do so as an option.

I’d be better about looking at a completely open view of the neighbor than a line of tortured trees.