cutting down the tree in my front yard is even more impressive in light of my father’s response after telling him what i was doing:

We had two Bradford pear trees in the backyard at White Road. They were the tree to buy in those days. I also grew to hate them, especially in the fall when they dropped billions of leaves that were like hard cardboard. The last time I fell a 40′ tree was when I was 30 and we lived on Ashland, in Sycamore Hills (not Overland). It was a 1/2 dead apple tree. I ended up in the emergency room and I still have no sensation in the finger I cut, or should I say mangled. Good luck with your tree. As for me, anything living and 40′ tall is staying right where it is. I won’t tell you about the chain saw incident at our house in Texas before I came to Germany. It backlashed into my face (the engine part, not the saw part), ruined my safety goggles (good thing I had them on) and gave me nice bump on the head. The chain saw was also ruined. We had a big (huge) branch break off a tree in the wind in the back yard while I was home last time. I cut it all up with a bow saw and not a chain saw. Interestingly, it was the same bow saw I used to shred my finger when I was 30. We Feldt’s ain’t got no common sense.