What a Difference a Day Makes!

 I'm pretty sure I posted about having a tree in my yard removed...but, not just any tree. A REALLY BIG tree that the whole family loved. The tree that my girls and all of the rest of the neighborhood kids called "the climbing tree". This tree had two very large branches that dipped so low in the field behind our house that the kids could literally just step onto it and walk up into the tree. My girls loved it so much that they shared it with all of their friends and soon everyone forgot that it was actually our tree. One summer evening, our family was all gathered around the picnic table on our patio and enjoying a bar-b-que when we heard voices and looked up and saw a line of kids perched along the very large branch watching us eat. We actually didn't recognize any of these kids so I guess word had spread even farther than we thought and, after a lawyer friend advised us that now might be the time to cut that branch back some because we could possibly be libel if anyone was to get injured, we did just that. Thankfully by now my girls and their friends were kind of beyond the tree climbing stage so all was good. Lol

So, this is the tree as it has been as long as I've known it-51 years. It's kind of hard to see but this tree now has branches that extend about 2/3 of the way over the roof of my house. This tree happens to be a live oak so the tree itself is probably not going anywhere but the branches could definitely snap and our hurricane "forecasts" for this year made me a bit worried so, it is coming down.

The company I chose is the only company in our county to have a new machine that allows them to get high up into the trees with no human having to be there. It is the most incredible tree trimming I have ever seen. In any case, I was scheduled for the first day the machine would be available which was June 26...until I got a call late on Tuesday evening and there had been a cancellation for the next day-would I like it? Well, it didn't take me long to jump on that and by 8 a.m. the next day, this was in my side yard and the entire circle was full of trucks all the way down and around the corner!

I have to be the biggest "groupie"-dork-they have ever seen because in no time flat I was in my comfy rocking sport chair with a cup of coffee and my phone. And, I was joined very soon after by grand daughter #5 who is anything but a dork and found it about as exciting as I did. That machine had a claw that goes up, grabs a limb, shoots out a saw blade to cut the branch and gently delivers it to the ground-more often than not directly over my house.

I was only scheduled to have one whole tree down and a water oak along the driveway trimmed back from over the house but when they got here they asked if I could possibly agree to taking down the whole tree. They said they could my job without but it would be easier if that tree was gone and they would give me a "deal". Lol Truth be told, that tree probably should have come down anyway so I agreed...and the fun began. At many times there was the "claw" taking down the smaller tree while a guy in a bucket was taking out some of the thousands of smaller branches from the monster. I took tons of videos-which are unbelievable-but, sadly, I still don't know how to successfully download one to this page so you'll just have to take my word for it.

So, they got it this far and that is when the fun really began. The claw could no longer safely grasp the diameter of the trunk so they had to resort back to chain saws-and, for whatever reason, the blades would just not go through this trunk. They worked on this step almost as long as the entire rest of the tree took! They ended up attaching it to the backhoe and sawing and sawing and sawing and they were finally successful in pulling it down. But then, it took them about 2 more hours before that could get it small enough for the backhoe to get it out front to get lifted into their huge truck-which my trees completely filled two times. 

Good old fashioned man power!

And now it looks like this-and I have 2 mountains of saw dust needing to go somewhere. I am thinking I will rake as much as I can down and around to try to level a bit of the ground and we will see what is left. They said they try to stump 6" down but with the size of this beauty, I'm doubtful that happened. I think I will still be left with a bit of a hill but I will live with it-first I have to learn to live with how empty the yard looks. I'm not missing the one by the drive as much because there are other trees still there but this one definitely leaves a gap! Who knows, maybe I'll be able to get some grass going back here finally.

It's hard to tell from this picture but this is a pretty high pile of sawdust!

So that was our excitement yesterday. Presley and I were so tired from being out in the heat all day that when we came in, we literally crashed and I introduced her to a few of my favorite "mindless" old movies-Overboard and My Cousin Vinny. She had never seen either and since neither of us wanted any movie we had to use our brains to follow, there were perfect...and she laughed and liked them

I was sorry that grandson #2 wasn't here. He had just left for 4 days in Orlando for an FFA convention. He would have LOVED this. He and his buddy have a side business where they cut up fallen trees from his friend's family cattle ranch and sell it for firewood-he could have had enough wood for the rest of his life from these things. Lol

I have been busy with the kids so I haven't really thought about crafting but, in perusing some place the other afternoon I came across another of the Helen Keller quotes that I wanted for my sunflower and this one, although I still couldn't change the size, was definitely closer to what I needed so I printed it out and backed it with two mats and I think I am going this way.

New idea:

Or first idea?:

Decisions, decisions! You'll be the first to know! Stay safe and stay tuned.