Goodbye Trees, Hello New Fence

It has been a busy month since last I blogged.  This post is going to show some of what has been going on here, and mainly for my own records.

before

See those two towering fir trees at each corner of my house?  Every time the wind blows hard I fear they might blow down, especially that one on the left.   They were both small trees when I moved here, but this is perfect tree growing country, and grow they did.

after

It was a difficult decision but we finally decided to cut them down.  My peacocks used to sleep in those trees, and squirrels and birds made their homes in them.

Days before the trees were scheduled to come down I read this poem by Margaret Gibson titled Solitudes.  I wanted to memorize it, it begins: 

"For today, I will memorize the two trees, now in end of summer light".  Then I had to snap some photos showing them in end of summer light. 

They were beautiful trees and I cried to see them go.

We had to get a permit from the county road dept. to be able to drop the trees across the road, and had to wait until the power company could schedule a day that they could drop the power lines.  After waiting for about 3 years, all these things finally came together. 

Chris Davis and Steve

Steve (Chainsaw Man) traded this chain saw, (a Stil 66 with a 42 inch bar for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing) to the man, Chris Davis, for doing the cutting of the trees.  You can get an idea of the size of this tree and yet, it is only about 45 years old.  Yep, I'm older than the trees.

Chris had access to a skidder which he brought over to help with the tree removal.  The power company attached cables high in the trees and Steve and Chris attached the other end through a giant block to the skidder, insuring that the trees would fall where they were supposed to.

Giant block

Luckily all went exactly as planned and the trees fell where they were supposed to, and not on the house.  

 It was a big event and neighbors showed up to watch the trees come down.

 I don't know who enjoyed it more, the kids or the parents!

 Steve and Chris and the skidder (which Chris operated) quickly got the trees bucked up and out of the road.  One car came as all this was going on, and only had to wait about 5 minutes before the road was clear again.  The whole process took about two and a half hours from electric lines dropped to road cleared.  Of course there was still plenty of clean up to do.

Chris, Steve and neighbor Dan relaxing afterwards, plenty of time for clean up later!

old fence

The wood fence in front of my house has needed replacing for awhile but it was impractical to replace it until the trees came down.  So finally it was torn down but first we had to build a temporary fence to keep the dogs in.  I'm not showing photos of that.

entrance to the fenced yard before work began.

 Neighbor Dan came and helped with fence building

 

Entrance to the newly fenced yard after tree removal.  "Nice gate!" says Windy.

New aspect to the front of the house.  We used fir boards, stained before we put the fence up.  The gate is made from cedar.

Inside the yard looking out through the new gate.  It opens like French doors.

We can sit in the front yard again, it had become very weedy and overgrown before.

The yard seems twice as big now even though the fence is in the same place.  We took out a lot more than just the two big trees.  It was a long time coming but what a relief to have it finished!  Now when the wind blows I won't be worrying about a tree crushing me in my bed, or the fence blowing down either.

Now to bring in our firewood.  One of these days I hope to get back into the studio for serious work.  I've been puttering at odd moments, I'll show what I've done in another post.

Can't go without a gratuitous pet photo!

Hope you all are ready for winter storms or spring showers, depending where you live.  We are having some gorgeous Indian summer weather here right now, it has been in the low 80's.  I love it!  The leaves are so beautiful and everything is crisp and tangy.
So until next time,

Be well.