When a Tree Falls

Today the tree that sits the closest to our house came down.  We have been talking about what to do about it for awhile now, and after we got the house painted, and did the back porch, and now are going to replace the railing, we thought the best thing to keep the house in good shape would be to take down that tree.

The trees roots are dangerous and large.  They have even started to creep under the porch.  So even though we really loved the tree and the shade it provided, it had to go.

Here it is:

This morning our amazing neighbors and their chainsaws came over to make the tree come down.  It is a very mature, very tall tree, so we knew we had to do it just right.  And because it was so close to the house, we knew we needed to rope it to make sure it fell into the yard and not into the house.

The ladies and the kids were in the house and we got to watch the action from there.  Our neighbor chainsawed the tree and the other men had the rope and pulled it into the yard.  It was fun to watch.

And down came the monster.

Look at the house now!  It is open and bright!  We were standing in the kitchen and as soon as it fell, the kitchen was flooded with light.  I love being able to see the whole yard now from the house, AND the whole house from the yard.  It looks amazing.

Of course - just taking down the tree was the easy part.  After that we had to cut it into tiny moveable pieces.  It gave us a lot of fire wood for the winter, that is for sure.

It took all day to do this project, but it was so worth it.  Although, (and my mother will especially love this part), cutting down a tree in the woods is not without finding creatures.  There were two birds nest, and - this was a new one - a squirrel's nest.  Never had seen that before.  Arlington and I heard all of this squeaking when we were removing tree branches and we found 8 - yes 8 - very tiny baby squirrels.

Sigh.

They were unhurt, believe it or not, but they were trapped.  Because Arlington was freaking out, we moved the tree, rescued these little squirrels (who have very sharp claws, but really, really liked being held) and rebuilt a little nest right on the edge of our property.  Before the night was over, mama had come and moved all 8 of them to a new location, which made Arlington very happy.

And the birds were fine as well.  A little stunned at the fall, but we moved their nest to a new tree and all was well.  I tell ya.

Another project crossed off our list.  The back yard is going to be just as nice as the front pretty soon.  If in soon, you mean 2-5 years.