I did a little project last spring to clean up a climate-killed tree, transforming it into a pole light for the driveway. The other half of that tree went the same route again this year, but turned out to be considerably more difficult. We needed a new, longer ladder and somebody to watch me attempt suicide by gravity. So I waited until the Town guys were hanging out before their regularly scheduled landscaping activities, and invited them to watch with their flashing yellow light truck while I dropped branches onto the street.
Only issue with the taller side now is it sorta becomes a street light at this point. Maybe I can do a deal with the Town to get that going. These solar pole lights start getting expensive up into the +400-watt range. I had to replace the original unit installed a year ago, due to a failed battery. I haven’t checked it yet, but it was getting drained every night over the winter, so that is probably what went wrong with it. It was a 300-watt model and the new one shown below is an upgrade to 400-watts.
One cool thing about the tree is it isn’t actually dead. The main trunks died off, but it’s now sprouting new branches out of a few spots, so maybe it won’t eventually fail after the roots rot out! It really is a big ‘ol hardwood weed.
