One of the things I loved about my house when I bought it almost two years ago was the humongous, giant tree in the backyard. It’s directly behind the house and was great shade for the yard and the house. At the time, it did have one branch that looked kind of dead. It didn’t have leaves like the rest of the branches.

Since I was gone most of last summer in Texas dealing with parent situations, I didn’t realize that the tree was continuing to die. This summer, it is gone, nada, capoot, dead. . .

My beautiful shade tree!  Sigh. . .

Of course, not only is the wonderful shade gone, the tree is a definite hazard for the house and for the power lines behind the tree.  So — it’s coming down.

The tree removal company came out and looked at the tree at the beginning of May and were supposed to start on it within a week or two, but then we got rain, rain, rain.  They then had to wait for the ground to dry out so their truck wouldn’t sink into my backyard and become a permanent yard ornament.  (Not a pretty thought!)  They suddenly showed up at 7:15 AM this week.   No warning.  Yikes! 

Thank goodness I was dressed!  It could have been really scary.

The first order of business was for them to get access to the backyard. 

There is a huge double gate on the front fence, so they measured to see if they could drive the truck through the gate.  Well. . .  almost.  They had to remove the gate completely in order to squeak through. 

I crossed my fingers, prayed, and sucked in my breath and held it until the truck got all the way through. 

Whew! 

The basket went up

and up

and up.

Then they added a second basket with a second cutter.

The tree surgeons at work.  Reminds me of that medical “joke” — The surgery was a success, but the patient died.  This poor patient is already dead.  Waaaaaaaa!

(Oooops! Song interlude. “Weird Al” Yankovic – Like A Surgeon)

The pile of wood on both sides of the street grew and grew.

At the end of Day 1, the tree looked like this.

The ground under the tree looked like this.

The tree guys looked like this.

The limbs from the tree looked like this.

When the guys left, the street looked like this.

Good grief!  Every time a car drove over this stuff, a big cloud of sawdust would blow up.  And wood chips were going everywhere!

I got out the broom and went to work.  I left the pile of sawdust and wood chips at the curb so the tree guys would be sure and see it when they showed up the next morning. 

Is that evil?  Hmmmm. . .

I don’t know if the drive in front of my house has ever looked quite this good.

And it’s so peaceful.  Ahhhhhhh. . .

(Day 2)

(Day 3)