VIDEO: Rookie Learns the Ropes as a St. Louis Park Tree Trimmer

Editor's Note:  "Fish Out of Water" features Minnetonka Patch Local Editor Katelynn Metz trying her hand at a new job somewhere in the west metro. New editions of Fish Out of Water will appear every Monday.

It’s not even dawn, yet my alarm is blaring, demanding that I get up—quite obnoxiously in fact.

It’s hovering around freezing and a wind advisory has been issued, yet I’m gearing up to spend hours outdoors. Goody. 

Hat? Check. Gloves? Check. Subzero parka? Check. Steel toed work boots and safety glasses? Ummm...

For today's "Fish out of Water" I replaced the reporter’s notebook with a rake and tried my hand as a forestry worker with the St. Louis Park Parks and Recreation Department. And to be perfectly honest, I was a little less than enthusiastic about the day’s assignment.

But upon meeting my supervisor, Jayme Hamilton (who in addition to being a forestry worker is also an expert chainsaw-wielding wood artist), my day got a little brighter—that is until I was forced to don an unflattering neon yellow vest and unstylish safety glasses. But set on being a good sport and wearing my forestry outfit, I set out to be the best forestry worker I could be.

First item on the agenda: trimming a dead tree and collecting its branches so that the branches could be turned into mulch. This seemed like a perfect assignment for me, seeing as I have a black thumb. Because I didn't have anything to do with its death, for the first time I was able to get rid of a dead plant/tree without shame and guilt. 

Next up: raking up the bits and pieces of said-tree that were too small to pick up by hand. At first this was really hard—too hard. "Why didn’t these darn pieces move—isn’t this just like sweeping, but outside?" I thought to myself.  Came to find out that my rake was upside-down, which was (so I’m told) not only ineffective but also dangerous. Once corrected though, I was on a roll.

Finally: tree pruning. While I questioned the sanity of anyone who thought that giving me a large machete-like object was a good idea, I actually did a great job! Not so great that they let me near the Bobcat (I asked several times) but good enough that I might just get myself one of those four-foot-long lethal pruners (which are, I checked, available at Menards) and try to prune at home.

Eventually we finished up and the guys headed off to their next location. For a split second, I even wanted to go with them a bit. That is until a gust of wind almost knocked me to the ground and I suddenly became acutely aware of just how cold it was and how urgently I needed a venti, one-pump, non-fat, two-Splenda latte.

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