Friday Fun

The forsythia is in bloom! We don't have any, but we drove past bushes in glorious golden bloom when we drove in to the library today. We didn't have forsythia in Florida, and I think it is just so pretty!



Ed stayed home today to supervise the felling of the huge old maple tree right behind our house. He has been worried about this tree falling through our roof for quite a while, and finally decided the time had come for it to go. I was sort of fond of it myself, but it certainly did fill the gutters with leaves, and we did have some very large branches blown off trees this winter, and it would be a shame to have a branch through the roof. Plus, my planned vegetable garden will get more sun this way!



The tree guy came before we left for the library, while I was reading the kids the last chapter of Wind in the Willows. He had two huge trucks, one with the chipper and chip holding part, and the other with the cherry picker thingy. Our back yard is fenced, and the double gate is on the far side of the house from the driveway. The trucks had to squeeze between the pine trees where our bird feeders hang and the side porch. A little while after they arrived, Ed called me out to explain that the pine tree closest to our house would have to be cut down because there was no way the trucks could get through. I grumbled, pointing out that I was very fond of that tree, which not only holds the bird feeders, but also partly screens our view of the neighbor's house. Ed and the tree guy both gently but firmly told me that there was just no way around it -- the tree had to go. I went inside, and the kids asked me what was going on. I told them, and Katie burst into tears. They couldn't cut down that tree! That tree was Stuckey's (her favorite chickadee's) home! He would be devastated!




I explained, in my most reasonable, grown-up way, that, though none of us Wanted to cut down Stuckey's tree, there was no other way for the truck to get through. (This argument would have been more powerful if Katie didn't also object to the cutting down of the maple tree. Poor kid.) My efforts were in vain -- Katie just kept weeping. The back door was open, and Ed heard his baby's cries. So did the tree guy. I explained the cause. And, miraculously, the trucks got thinner! That's right. The trucks that couldn't Possibly fit between the house and the tree fit, just to please a tearful little girl. Stuckey picked a good advocate, eh?

The tree guy took the big chunks, but he mulched the smaller branches. How long do you think it will take me to spread all that mulch?



The kids don't want me to spread the mulch at all. They like it just the way it is!
Here you see the gap, and the tree that narrowly escaped the ax. You also see deep truck track ruts perilously close to our not-quite-all-the-way-buried septic tank. We've already had a lifetime's worth of septic woes, so we are really hoping that nothing important was disturbed in this area!






Here is the now very naked looking back of our house. We are thinking that a wood deck would be lovely here -- just the place to do school work or just sit and drink lemonade on balmy spring and summer days!