A Guy, a Tree, and a Machete

     This afternoon I heard some noises coming from the roof of the lab. I went outside to take a look. There was a guy on the roof of the lab with a machete. The guy is Jean-Robert. He was doing what I hired Bartholomew Tree Service to do at my house in Silver Spring earlier this week: he is trimming back branches on a tree that are hanging over the roof of the lab. He is hacking away at the branches with his machete. Jean-Robert works quickly; he is ambidextrous. He climbs up the trunk of the tree in his bare feet. As I watch, I think about how the work was done back in Silver Spring. Those workers probably used ropes and chain saws and were wearing boots and safety goggles. Not Jean-Robert.

Jean-Robert on the roof of the lab

     When Jean-Robert finished trimming the branches of that tree, he climbed up into another tree and did the same thing. Hack, slash, crash, the machete flashed and the branches tumbled to the ground. Jean-Robert climbed down and I thanked him in Kreyol, “Mesi anpil”. I asked him if I could take a picture. He told me that his machete was old. At least that’s what I translated from the Kreyol. What he actually said was that the machete was “old” in the sense that it needed to be sharpened. So someone took it around the other side of the lab and soon we heard the sound of a grinding wheel sharpening Jean-Robert’s machete.

Jean-Robert and his machete trim another tree

Jean-Robert starts on the almond tree

Machete vs. almond tree

Axe vs. almond tree

     A young man came around with an axe. There is an almond tree growing too close to the lab. The roots might crack the foundation in a few years time. Right now its upper trunk is pushing up against the sheet metal roofing of the lab. The tree has to come down.           The axe starts swinging. This is a tough tree. The young man pauses. Jean-Robert takes over. He starts to swing the axe, alternating left-hand and right hand. There is a thick knot in the tree trunk that the axe is bouncing off.

     Suddenly, the axe head falls off the handle. The young man takes the axe head and the handle to the shop to fix it. Jean-Robert picks up his “new” machete. There is a rope tied to the top of the tree so that it can be guided to fall away from the lab. Jean-Robert starts clashing at the tree trunk with his machete. He picks his spots carefully. He makes his cuts around the knot and then slides over to the other side. A few more carefully places slashes and he backs away. The young man with the rope gives a tentative tug to see if the tree is ready. Then he pulls hard, several times. And the tree is down on the ground. The axe is still in the shop. Jean-Robert's machete finished the job of the axe. It all took less than 20 minutes. I go over to measure. The tree trunk was a little over three feet in diameter.

Machete wins, almond tree falls

     I asked Benice what kind of a tree it was. He said it was an almond tree. Edible? (“Ou mange ca?”), I asked. "Oui". He took a nut, chose a nice, large, flat rock and set the nut on it. Then he took a smaller one that fit nicely in his hand and used it to break open the shell. There was a tiny almond, about one-fifth the size of the kind you find in the stores back home. We sat around while Benice broke open almonds for us and we ate them. Not your California almonds, but still tasty. Meanwhile, Jean-Robert was hacking away at the tree limbs to make them easier to haul away. To Jean-Robert and his machete, “Bon travail”. Time for me to go back to the lab.

Jean-Robert and Meer

Jean-Robert with his machete