Finally finished pruning the redbud, or at least, as much as I can reach. It took a while to get to this, because it requires our tall ladder, which is heavy enough that I need Kevin’s help to maneuver it from the garage to the front yard. (Okay, I could *possibly* manage it on my own, but it would be very hard.)
Once it was set up, it was mostly just a matter of moving around the tree systematically; I think the whole project took about three hours.
I had a particular goal — the tree has gotten large enough that it’s shading out more of the front garden that I want; in particular, there’s two large flowering shrubs that were really struggling in what had become deep shade. So I decided to take of the lowest limbs all around, which definitely changes the shape of the tree, but I think in a way that looks fine.
While I was up there, I also tried to take out any cross-cutting branches that were rubbing against each other (can lead to infection), and any dead branches. I was a little frustrated that even with my tall ladder, I couldn’t reach as high as I wanted — I’m only 5’0″, and you’re not supposed to stand on the top step (and honestly, even standing on the next-to-top step didn’t feel that stable when trying to also exert force and cut, sometimes leaning a bit, so I quickly decided that wasn’t the best plan, and went down one more step).
But still, reasonably happy with what got done, and next year, maybe we’ll budget to get a tree guy out to clean up the upper part a bit. We had to put a new roof on the house & garage this year (big holes from raccoons, plus wearing from ice dams, massive leaks, sigh, etc.), which ate up all the extra house & garden budget and then some.
Felt good getting some of it done myself, especially since it let me be a bit control freak about it. 
Next, there’s a big branch rubbing against the garage roof — I can’t reach to take it off where it attaches to the trunk, but I think I can easily at least cut off the part that’s hitting the roof.
And now I have a nice pile of branches (waist-high!) to break down for kindling for the backyard fire…
(Note: I may have found a redbud pod in my bra at the end of the day. Hazards of the home gardener…)
