Box elder tree trim south of the house

Wednesday and Thursday I did a little tree trimming.    Wednesday I did some minor tree trimming on the female box elder tree south of the house.  Minor in the number and size of the branches cut.  Not so minor in the ladder climbing to reach those branches.   I also trimmed some branches on the shrub just south of the house.  I can now walk under the shrub without having to bend over.

On Thursday I worked on the male box elder tree south of the house.  On Wednesday I noticed and was reminded that part of the tree trunk had died and it would be good to cut the dead part off the tree.   This is a tree that I cut back in 2009 after the top part died.  

https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2009/11/owl-ent-tree-part-3-final-photos.html

Since then a little more of the top of the trunk died.   The birds making holes and nests in the trunk didn't help.

Before and after.

Here are some of the holes where the birds would nest.   The birds are gone until next Spring.  Years ago I had nailed boards over the holes.  Here you can see the birds made a new hole under this old hole.  The second photo shows what was inside this hole.

This is where I chainsaw the trunk down to.  The inner part of the trunk is dead, but the outer parts are alive and have branches growing out the sides.  So this is where I stopped.

Here is some of the nest material I pulled out of a hole in the tree.

The trunk was so dead they would break apart when I dropped sections to the ground.

The trunk sections I had cut.

I was high up on the ladder and using a chainsaw.  The trunk was longer/wider than my 20-inch blade and I had to work at cutting around to get a section cut.  Often I would get most of the trunk section cut, then turn off the chainsaw, and then push the trunk section over and to the ground.  One time a section caught my glove as it fell.  The ladder was solid in position and held by side branches and did not slide sideways.  I held on the ladder and branches and the trunk section didn't make me lose balance and fall.  But the section tore my leather glove before it let go of me and the glove.