One day, my mom, sister, and I all went over to my cousin’s house to watch her and her cheerleading squad cheer on their football team. But before we left their house for the game, I saw my uncle John on his workhorse. He invited me on and I noticed he had a chainsaw, ax, and pulleys in the back of his workhorse. He told me he was going to cut down a tree.

He showed me all the trees he had cut down and the one he was about to cut down. It was a big tree, maybe 75 feet or so, and the trunk was large. He also told me of the problem cutting this tree down presented. He said to me not only is it a large tree, it was leaning toward his house.

So, before we could hack into the tree, we had to set up a pulley system that prevented it from falling onto his house. My uncle set up large cables around the tree we were cutting down and then clamped them onto a larger tree. When the cables were set, my uncle told me to back away and after I was in a safe place, he took out his chainsaw and started cutting away at the base of the tree. It took him several minutes because the trunk was so large, but eventually the tree began to sway and before you knew it, Tim-ber!, the tree came down with a thunderous roar!

The tree was exactly where my uncle wanted it to be, and it couldn’t have gone better. It took my uncle several minutes to unattach the cables and when he was done, he began to chop up the tree for firewood. It was exciting watching him cut down the tree and maybe next time I could cut a tree down. Although I’m not too sure I’m good with a chainsaw!

--Tommy Lonmer