The Great Tree Battle

So, we have this one trash tree in the back yard, which has been extending over the back corner of the fence, and apparently it's intruded far enough to the alley that the trash truck has been hitting it. They got tired of that and started leaving nasty little notes on our trash cans, so tonight Secondborn and I broke out the saw, the clippers, and the step-ladder (from a previous marriage) and we *trimmed* that bad boy. It was an epic battle: tying the stepladder off to the tree so it couldn't tilt backwards, roping the limbs and pulling them aside so they wouldn't fall on the person doing the cutting, clipping things above my head....

The tree -- and the bush tangled up with it, which we also trimmed back -- fought back, launching clouds of pollen into our hair and faces, having new branches spring out to slap us as the cut branches were pulled out of the way, and generally being recalcitrant in all the ways that plantlife can. Jester the squirrel came skittering down from the treetop at one point when neither of us was on the ladder, but he, at least, was too traumatized to offer battle. With a panicked cry of, "My tree! My tree! What are you doing to my tree!" he slipped past us and vanished into the bushes. 

I've never seen such an expression of existential confusion on the face of a rodent before.

Secondborn did amazing work, using the main branch of the tree to stabilize himself while sawing away at the outer branches, explaining his plan for what he was going to if something went wrong, hauling massive branches away once they hit the ground. He had a great time, and got paid for it too; now he's in the bathtub. He says he's glad he was working Core today, instead of doing Arm Day.

I myself had to shampoo my hair twice to get all the Tree Crud out of it, and my shoulders are letting me know that I'm definitely going to feel this in the morning. 

...But by all the gods, it's done.