Friday, May 23, 2008

Timberrrrr!

When I left for work this morning, our front yard looked like this...


And when I came home this afternoon...voila!


A huge change!

Stunning actually - even though I knew it was coming. To actually see the difference was amazing.

So what brought about this change? Just our hatred of trees? Hardly. We love trees. We chose to live with woods behind our house so we could see lots and lots of trees. But not too long ago, this happened...



We woke up one morning to find a rather tall tree had fallen across our back yard. Fortunatly, even though it fell toward the house, it was in the very back of the yard so it didn't reach anywhere close to the house. The only damage done was a few divots in the grass and a couple of azalea bushes got a little crunched.

But it made us think a little bit about all the really large trees that were very close to the house. In many cases, they had quite large branches that hung over the house. And we decided it was time to bring in an arborist and see what trees had damage or disease that might weaken them...and what trees were simply overgrown and in need of some pruning.

We'll have two days of work done in order to get it all done. And they really brought in the big stuff...

The bucket truck for the tall stuff...










The tractor for pushing trees, pulling tree trunks, carrying limbs, etc...







And what self-respecting tree guy would show up without a seriously powerful chipper...












On Tuesday they'll return to do a lot more work in the back yard (with me taking some photos, of course!). But for now, we have a couple of days to get used to our front yard...which just seems so much more sunny and open!













(Yes, all the pics are clickable if you feel the need to see the work a bit better)

26 comments:

meno said...

Wow! The difference is amazing. You'll get more light too.

bet it was noisy.

barefoot gardener said...

What a huge change! It looks good.

Jocelyn said...

Holy moly--there was a house back there! Who knew?

We have the same issue in our yard...it still makes me sad when a tree goes, though.

Anonymous said...

What a pretty house you live in! And your front yard is very nice too.

furiousBall said...

i removed 9 pines from my yard a couple years ago and all of the sudden my lawn grew. now i have to mow it more. oops

Kati said...

OMG!!!! Are you going to replace the tree with something smaller (or something that will eventually be that large but isn't yet)??? I can understand wanting to remove dying or diseased trees before they remove themselves in a much-less-managable way, but I know too that trees are important for controling the heat & wind around one's house.

Glad you got rid of a hazard to your home before it did any damage. I hope you're able to find a managable replacement, if so desired.

VioletSky said...

OMG

Get those curtains back up but quick!

A whole new summer project for the resident gardener,eh?!

Seriously,looks better and safer.

Anonymous said...

Others have already said it, but yes... more light, faster growing lawn, more weeds, more mowing, more work... it never ends, this vicious cycle... but it does look better. We need to have the same done... again... behind our house.

Em said...

Thanks for the positive comments! We have certainly been enjoying the extra light coming through the windows!

Joc...yeah, I hate seeing the trees go also. But some work just had to be done. And we hope the nature gods and goddesses will still love us!

Kati...no, the tree out front won't get a replacement. We are just hoping to finally grow decent grass in that spot and to have enough light that moss will stop growing on the house! LOL

Violet...that window that is now fully exposed to the street...how did you know that was our bedroom! And we've never closed a blind or curtain on that window. But now how brave will we be?!?! :)

Anonymous said...

We recently had four pines removed. It made such a difference! It was really fun to watch the guys do their thing and my girls were amazed by the chipper.

Yours looks great, too. :)

Kati said...

*griN* Ok. I suppose that growing grass in the yard instead of moss on the house would be a good reason to not replace the tree there in the middle of the lawn. Best of luck with the landscaping endeavors this summer!

whimsical brainpan said...

What a huge difference!

Can't wait to see the back yard.

Jazz said...

Whoa. That's a lot of tree gone. Like Joce said, who knew there was a house back there...

Mysti said...

Awesome! What a gorgeous little dwelling you have... :)I'm envious!

Melody said...

My goodness your house is gorgeous!!!

ANd what a difference it has made by getting rid of one tree.

Redroach said...

Tree hater.
We will get you back, just wait.
The first fallen tree was a warning!!!!

TV

Redroach said...

Tree hater.
We will get you back, just wait.
The first fallen tree was a warning!!!!

TV

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a difference! Those your kids walking to the car?

Em said...

Yes citizen...those are the kids...heading out to the bus, actually. And most horrified that I was in the middle of the street in my robe taking photos.

wisdomstuff said...

It looks great without the tree. In our old house we had two massive pine trees taken down. It made such a difference, especially when you were inside looking out. And I must say you have a very pretty house. I love it. It looks very homey.

wisdomstuff said...

Oh, and horrifying your kids is part of your job! Good one :-)

Angel said...

goodlord...there WAS a house behind that tree!! What a BIG difference!!!

Gretchen said...

We just took down a couple of big fir trees because of that reason, too, Em. The wind and rain wreak havoc on shallow root systems. We had one (2nd growth fir) which was so sad to cut down, but it was sort of a tree-eat-tree circumstance. The big fella had a major lean toward our master bedroom, and 80% of it's branches were over our roof. Not ideal. The only up-side, aside from not dying from a fallen tree is that we got to give the money from the firewood to a mission to Thailand trip.

BTW, love your quintessentially NE home. Beautiful.

Gretchen

Rainbow dreams said...

that is incredible - so much more light to your house too...
sorry for my absence Em...am back now! Katie

Mom not Mum (Sandy) said...

It looks great! I would love a house/yard like that but nope - we're going to Arizona so we'll have cacti and rocks. LOL

thethinker said...

Wow. You can actually see the house now.