Today's Word Is...Timber!

Today we worked diligently on removing the cedars that were planted on two sides of our property. A word of advice to anyone considering removing trees...count the trunks before you begin! For some reason, we thought we had only 10 to 20 trees; however, when we counted all the stumps when we were done we were shocked to count 30 of them! No wonder we were so tired at the end of the day!

Everyone worked hard on the project - even DJ and Zoya. I have to give them credit for creativity! It was their job to move the firewood to the lean to attached to the shed. Rather than carry each one (which Daddy threw as close as he could), they loaded up DJ's "jeep" and drove the wood to the shed. It was really cute and funny at the same time, especially since there were times when they had to carry the wood further to reach the truck than they would have if they had just carried it to the lean to in the first place. But they were happy to help and felt that they were being "really useful engines" (a Thomas the Train reference, for those that don't recognize the quote).



By the end of the day, we had a really nice stack of firewood to burn in our pit, once we have that incorporated into the new landscaping schemes. Here are some before and after pictures to show what we have accomplished. These first two pictures show the property line that runs alongside our shed.

And here is what the back property line looks like after a full day of work. This side was a little bit more challenging only because the trees were intertwined with some support cables for a power pole and one pair of trees actually looked like they were supporting the pole. Fortunately for us, they were not.

In addition to the firewood, we also now have a rather large pile of branches and skinny poles in our yard. My dear husband and I are having a bit of a debate on what is the next best course of action. He wants to haul all of it to the local compost yard, which is free. I want to rent a chipper and make cedar mulch for my gardens. Who do you think will prevail?

Believe it or not, our house actually has a back deck on it that the pile of cuttings is completely hiding from view! Of course, none of this would have been possible without the hard work of my dear wonderful husband Dave. He worked diligently from about 8:30 in the morning until we called it quits at 6:00. I think his arms were vibrating from the chain saw all night too!

I know that the views of the neighbors' yards is not much to look at, but from inside the house, especially on the second floor, our outside view looks so much bigger and brighter. Unfortunately, while green and beautiful in their own right, the cedars were not sufficient for keeping children in the yard and little critters out of the garden that we would like to have. That being said, we are planning on putting up a fence to replace the trees. (Besides, fences do not require multiple rakings!)