Sunlight

When we bought our house a year and a half ago, we loved the neighborhood, the size of the house, that it had a good sized yard, and that it was on a cul de sac (a bonus since that wasn't on our list of requirements). What we didn't realize at the time was that the good sized yard was covered with humongous pine trees which would make growing a garden difficult, not to mention that we wouldn't be able to throw a ball in the back yard without hitting a tree. Our actual usable back yard is pretty small. So fast forward 18 months and a good chunk of tax return money, and we are removing said pine trees.

I'm actually feeling a lot of guilt about cutting down so many trees -- trees are good for the environment. They're pretty. They provide shade and homes for our animal friends. BUT they also drop one million pounds of pine needles and pine cones. They provide a really good host for poison ivy (which is rampant in our yard) and make it impossible for the kids to be able to play freely out there. And really, I want to be able to plant a garden and put up a swing set for the kids. It's impossible to do now.

But not for long!! Men with chainsaws, a giant truck with an even giant-er cherry picker, and a wood chipper are here as we speak. They've already trimmed along the driveway (we're leaving those particular trees there -- they're just  trimming up about 35 feet) and are now in the back yard. There are a good 20 trees back there that they are removing. But don't worry -- they aren't taking all of them (we can't afford that much!) And with us sharing a backyard fence with a nature conservatory, we will still have a ton of trees nearby and places for our animal friends to nest.

This is supposed to take 2-3 days for them to accomplish it all (including stump grinding). Next step after this will be for a landscaper to come in and grade and level the yard and plant grass seed. I am so pleasantly surprised that this is happening so quickly! If it's possible to put the grass seed down now (maybe not -- it's still cold enough that not all the snow has melted) maybe we'll have the beginnings of a usable back yard by Lucas' birthday!? If not, then hopefully by Zach's, in July.

I can't post photos at the moment (my home computer has a virus) but will try to include some before and after in the next few days. For now I'm excited to get up from my chair and see what has happened in the 10 minutes I've been away from the window. Already I can see more sunlight in the front yard from where they've trimmed. I can just imagine that the back yard is going to be amazingly sun-filled by the weekend!