Story & Photos – Joseph Boyle
Don’t you just love the weather we are having? Sun and 60s. With all this great weather, it is easy to forget what happened this past January 21, 2012.
While walking past the Lakewood Library on my way to Starbucks I was shocked to see a grand old oak tree tipped over on its side. The oak simply could no longer stand up under the burden of ice, snow and old age. The mighty oak came crashing down.
It was at this precise moment that our library enjoyed some good luck during a moment of bad luck.
Yes, the tree fell over, but it missed the library roof, massive library windows, library brick extension wall and all our books. Oh, it missed the librarian too.
We will need to replace a small corner of cyclone fence, but “golly gee”, let’s not complain about that when it could have been so much worse.
The next thing my eyes discover is one of my heroes on scene; Mica Glatstetter, who owns Ranger Tree Service. Having worked with Mica on a number of projects over the years, I had great confidence that he would solve the library’s tree problem. You can check out Mica at his website (www.rangertreeservice.com) for your own tree problems.
The next day I walked by again and saw precisely what I expected to see. Mica’s father, who owns “Down to Earth Stump Grinding”, was making the huge truck size stump morph into a pile of wood shavings.
The last chapter of this story is pretty cool, especially for all you oak tree lovers out there. Mica delivered all the big hunks and chunks of wood to one of his pals who will give the dead tree a second life in the form of oak slab furniture. The mighty oak will live its life of retirement inside away from the ice and snow.
