Jon comes off conqueror!

Several months ago, during a crazy windstorm here, the top third of one of our Madrona trees snapped off and entangled itself in a nearby Maple. Fearing that the nearly 1000-pound branch would come crashing down on one of us, Jon has spent many hours (I'd say at LEAST 30) trying every imaginable way to get it down before it decided to come down itself. Yes, this tree has a mind of its own. We won't go into all the details of the times the tree won. But finally, Jon has come off conqueror! He climbed about 40' up into the Maple last Saturday (with climbing harness - can you see him there?), had me pass up the chainsaw (no, it wasn't running - yet), then had me pass up a hatchet (b/c the gas cap came off the chainsaw before he could cut the branch), and then chipped away at it until that huge branch finally yielded and came smashing down to the ground. Hooray for Jon!!! Now he is getting his revenge by chopping it all up to make a treehouse for the kids (pictures of that coming soon)...