For years, our 6 (yes, SIX! we didn't plant them, we inherited them- I never liked them!) blue spruce pine trees in the backyard have been declining in their health, with dead branches and needles spreading upwards and upwards on each tree. The one closest to the house, outside of Ben's office window, finally looked the deadest and prompted Ben to agree with my assessment and desire to get rid of the whole lot of 'em since they were becoming deader and deader each year. And sure enough, the tree specialist agreed with me. In fact, he said they would've needed to start treatment probably even before we moved in to maintain their health, so yes, they were dying more and more each year and even if we'd treated them, they would still have been half dead and been half blue spruce, we would only have ever been able to freeze them where they were, not truly bring them back to health. It really just wasn't a good environment for them here. Quite simply, nobody should ever have planted them that way in our yard, he said. I couldn't agree more. We got a quote to get it all taken out, including some hedge bushes and all the weeds and other dead bushes around our front and backyard. Again, some planted in the wrong place altogether, others just worsened by last year's winter blasts. This was not a decision made lightly, because really it's sad to get rid of anything that's taken time to grow and was planted lovingly at one point in time. But the time now felt right and I'd been wanting those trees gone for years. I'm ready to plant things *I* like (well, have somebody else plant them, haha- I have NO green thumbs!).
We had to wait four long weeks for our turn for the work to be done. This actually worked out well because our street was also being done during those four weeks (we didn't know exactly when that would happen; it happened, haha, just in time!), which might have been problematic for all the various workers, trucks, and equipment. Anyway, we got the call with our date and we couldn't wait to watch all the action! The kids were bummed they would miss the fun, since it would all be done while they were in school. But we of course took lots of pictures AND videos AND the crew graciously streeeeetched it out at the very end (they thought it was so cute the kids wanted to watch!) so we could run and get the kids after school and they could at least watch the last tree come down. I think it was more exciting for us than for the kids in the end, though. And that night as I fell into bed, I was exhausted from all the excitement and watching, and it wasn't even me doing all the work like the great crew we had did! I had to laugh at myself. But still, really, it was something else watching and waiting all day, because gosh this took time. They were at our house all day!
And what a difference! Our yard is so much sunnier now, which I love. It has so much more space than we ever realized. It's really a nice sized yard now that it's not overrun with plants and dead trees and bushes we never wanted. Time to start dreaming what to put in now... We still have our two good trees that we do love, which actually are sort of now in the very middle of the yard than we realized before, too, and we are hoping to start a garden...someday. So we'll work with those two things and go from there. (Sounds like our neighbors have landscaping ideas of their own, too, so who knows what we'll need in the end?!) For now, we just really love the sunshine and the space!
Enjoy our pictures!! (We remembered to do before pictures, too- just in time, the night before! Phew.)
Before...
The cone bushes by the garage, half dead, gotta go. The front hedge bush, winter blast dead, gotta go, and I never liked the bush edging our porch, also going. Burning bushes and all to the very left- staying, those I like.
The tree in the very center here, stayed- I love that tree. The tree at the very left is the deadest one- going, and then believe it or not there are two trees behind the green one in the center, those are also going, plus the one you see on the right...and then there's still one more to the right, outside the pictures. See what I mean? Too much going on.
The dead bush on the left here- going. The bush under the window I just never liked plus I think this is where the garden might go best (our yard is a swamp in the back corners from all the drainage- it's pretty bad).
RIP big ugly dead tree. Not gonna miss you!
All three of these big guys are going...it's hard to see in the picture maybe, but they are half dead.
The tree on the left in front is a good one- it's staying, though it needs treatment in the spring. The big spruce in the back in the center of the picture- going, also very much half dead and just big and annoying; this tree marks the very right edge of our property line (our yard extends quite a bit to the right, more than most people realize). Branches on the right edge of the picture are from our neighbor's very large tree.
OK. Here we go!
Branches trimmed, tree roped for pulling in the direction they want it to go, and now we're ready to make the cut!
First tree down!
Time to chop this tree up!
Another tree bites the dust!
I didn't watch every tree go down...caught this one as they were chopping it up.
YAY! The kids are home and ready to watch the biggest deadest one go down!
Spectators! The crew was very good-natured about it and thought we were fun!
Yes, even Grandpa Larry came to watch all the action this day (he also did some really nice work along the side of our house- thanks, Larry!). It's not every day this happens!
Since this tree was SO big and so dead and in a very tight spot in our yard (right up against the house) and near the other neighbor's yard and a few other trees, this tree required a different approach from all the other trees. They cut off the branches down low, then spiked up it and cut off more branches, and then roped and lopped off the top, as pictured below, and then they cut the rest of the trunk down when it was shorter.
TA-DA! All done. Just gotta clean up now and grind up the stumps. The kids were glad to be able to go back and play, haha!
Now for After pictures...
Good riddance to that dead tree here!
Open space now!!
This space might work for a nice garden.
Actually, there is a tomato plant growing there (you can see the greenery there up against the deck- that's the tomato plant), strangely enough. No we didn't plant it.
And now the front...
Like I said, time to start dreaming!
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