Coming from a big, proud Italian family, I have been brought up to believe that we are able to do everything.
And I mean everything.
Calabrians are natural painters, handymen, tilers and doctors. When asked where they learned the finer points of their infinite professions you will often hear a muted, incomprehensible response that sounds a lot like ‘welll I am Italiano, I learn back in Italia ‘, followed by a quick swap of topic.
for the relatives, the vehicles and the home gadgets and hardware, the proper understanding passed down by my uncles regularly leads to something smouldering, something damaged beyond repair, or moreover recently indescribable harm to the car automobile.
It’s a Saturday or Sunday arvo at our picturesque European villa on the Central Coast, and for months my Nonno and Godfather had been staring at the forest in the front yard.
Amid complaints of how it shades the sun from the Vege patch, drops too many leaves for my Nonna to rake up and houses annoying insects and animals, they decided it was time for the tree to go.
In any other situation perhaps it’d be a job that my Grandfather and Uncles could do. But the incontrovertible fact was, the tree in question was a 10 metre Gumtree, which had been rooted for over 50 years. My Grandmother, Mamma and Papa attempted in vain to dissuade the intrepid tree loppers from undertaking their tree removal mission, however making an attempt to tell an Italian to call in someone else to do the work is admitting weakness, something my family appeared incapable of doing.
So out came the ropes, the manual saws and the gloves. For half a day they abused that tree, until the point where it was ultimately ready to fall to earth. The remainder of us sat inside, preparing for chaos.
The three amigos got set on the side of the tree, getting ready to tear the tree away the fence as it slid. What they didn’t expect was the wood evaporating before they could get going. We looked on horrified as the tree dropped, first crushing the fence, and eventually bashing on the roof of my Nonno’s much prized FIAT sports car. I have not heard as many bleeps as I did that afternoon. Not only did we lose a fence and a vehicle, but we nearly lost part of the roof and compromised the security of our family.
From that day on, my relatives have been a lot more open to calling in the pros to the job, most notably when it comes to tree removal. They have come to learn there are a few things you can’t do yourself, and tree removal, pruning and felling are best left to the professionals.
As we saw, tree removal is a extremely difficult task, and can frequently cause stress due to council regulations, safety considerations and green recycling of trees.
Why compromise your safety and spend half a weekend fretting when it’s possible to get someone else to come in and do the work for you?
Find out more about land clearance specialists, arboriculturalists and tree surgeons in your area on dLook.