No mas Palm

Juan starting his chainsaw

Had to drop it in the street

It was just getting too big. It was lifting my sidewalk and with a summer full of rain it might have reached the power lines. Also, it was making it impossible for me to paint and repair the wall behind.  It has huge sharp spines on the branches so very difficult to trim. It was given to me by one of the guys that built my house when it was only about 3 feet tall.

Juan is my neighbor and the only guy with a chainsaw I know. He only wanted 300 pesos so it was time. The guy in back wanted the fronds to make a shade palapa so he helped cut off the branches and then the fronds. When it was cleaned up enough to roll I towed it to the side of the road with my car. It's still in its almost original size because it was too heavy to raise high enough to get his saw under it. It also had sand and gravel in the bark (kids) and he didn't want to ruin the chain. Another neighbor came over and offered to help in exchange for some beer. Worked out well because it was definitely a 3 man job.nes. 

A CFE Bird Story

It took two visits to the CFE office and a month and a half for them to show up to cut the neighbors mango tree away from my power lines.  It usually gets done twice a year because they refuse to cut the tree way back. I'd be tempted to pay to have the whole thing cut down but it's huge, would not be cheap and not my responsibility.

I wondered why the CFE guy was taking his time at first but he had spotted a birds nest and was carefully cutting it out with his machete. I was on my roof taking the first picture and he motioned to me, did I want the nest and the one baby inside.  He was able to maneuver his crane over and handed me the nest. I had no idea what to do but I guess you have to try.   I remember trying to feed baby robins in a shoe box when we were kids and none of them ever made it.

My first clever idea was in the rebar which was above where my cat can reach.   Then I thought about sun and wind exposure so tied a palm frond over it.  Yesterday afternoon and again this morning the parents were buzzing around and making a real racket and I never saw them at the nest.  All I could figure was it was just too exposed or unnatural so I checked out my Neem tree for a spot.   It's good and well protected but if my cat really wanted he could get up there. When I moved the nest there was a lot of I'm hungry noises so he's healthy and maybe the parents will like this location better.   Last photo is a parent in a neighboring mango tree.

Ready to cut the Mango

Nest in rebar

A little more shade

New spot in the Neem tree

One of the very unhappy parents