Totum Poles

Totem poles are monumental sculptures carved on poles, posts, or pillars with symbols or figures made from large trees, mostly western red cedar, by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast of North America (northwestern United States and Canada's western province, British Columbia).

 

Now if we had the skill or the time, Walt Kowalski and I could totally do that.  We can do most anything we put our minds (and backs) to.

 

But pretty or not, we were tired of looking at our totem poles.

 

 

They have been standing "drying" for almost 2 years now.  The wires are ugly and the trees, that's extra ugly.

 

Here's the six of them.  How do I know it's autumn?  My spring alazlea is blooming.  Strangest shrub, it blooms in the spring AND the fall.  The crocus are blooming,  too. 

 

 
Add a blucket truck, a good breakfast, and a littel bit of courage...It took Walt Kowalski a few minutes to get his "bucket legs" back. The plan was to tie off an section of the tree, cut it, then lower the cut piece down to me.  I'll grab it and haul it over to the log pile. They weren't heavy logs, just awkward.

 
It started as a cloudy rainy day and turned into a beautiful afternoon and evening.

Now those are a lot of wires.  All important.  Some more dangerous than others. Luckily, he only had to go through the not so scary wire and the telephone wire.  He was away from the scary power wire.

 
I got to wear the hard hat and "catch" the logs after he cut them and lowered them to me. Luckily, I didn't need the hard hat for logs falling on my head.  I did need the hard hat because I kept running into the mirror on the truck!  *sigh*

We got the trees cut below the lowest wire and tied a rope around each one.  Now Chain Saw Johnny can come with his big saw and cut the remaining down to the ground and Walt Kowalski and I will pull the pole up onto the driveway to be cut into pieces. 

Here is the final product before the finish:

 

Bring on the fall outside fires!