Tree "Trimming"

When I lived in Tennessee, I learned a style of tree "trimming" that I had never seen before in MA. My friends and I dubbed it the "Tennessee chop." They would lop off the whole top of a tree, leaving just the trunk and a few stubs branching out from it. We discovered here in this part of Africa that they use the same method to "trim" trees.... except here most tree cutters don't have cherry picker trucks or chainsaws to use.

We have a number of trees around our house that were getting very tall. During the rainy season, they were swaying quite far in the strong winds that come with each storm. We decided to "trim" the trees before this next rainy season arrived... a little preventative measure to save our roof or power lines from being damaged. Last rainy season, there was a large tree on the street directly across from our gate. During a storm, half of the tree fell over. It fell across the street onto the main power lines and our wall. The street was completely blocked past our house. We called the power and phone companies to remove the tree and reconnect the lines. With that excitement fresh in our minds, we decided to cut some of our trees.

I hired a friend of our guard who cuts trees for a living. Their tools consisted of two machetes and some long ropes. One guy climbed up a tree... adeptly moving around in the tree like he was standing on solid ground. He methodically hacked off branches a piece at a time.

Meanwhile, the other two guys were below on the ground holding the rope to safely lower large branches to the ground.


They started with the two large Flambeau (Flame) trees in our yard that towered above our roof.

Here you can see the first tree has been given the "TN chop" and he is starting on the second tree way above the height of the roof. They spent a day and a half "trimming" all the trees around our house and then moving the huge piles of branches and brush out to the street. Our guard then bought the wood for himself at a highly reduced price. He will use it for his cooking fire for the next 4-5 months.


Silas had a blast watching the guys cutting the trees. He also helped me clean up the yard afterward.