Sculpting and carving

Last week's surprise snow fall came at a time when our tree cutters were to arrive and get to work cutting down trees on our property, the bulk of them at the back of the house.

Four specific towering trees were deemed as "scary" by the tree cutters because they leaned towards our home and would be tricky to pull down. In high winds all of these trees dance and sway like none we've seen so close to our home before, always leaving us to say a quick prayer for safety.

All 38 preplanned and marked trees came down

The two men appeared yesterday and I surprised myself by how apprehensive I became, nervous really. I also knew this would not be a great day for getting everyone into their schooling curriculums with the distraction of chain saw buzzing, skidder movements through the property and pounding booms when trees hit the ground.

Notice the thicket underbrush surrounding them

Nope, the curricula this day would be forestry, tree identification, and the process from tree to firewood later on when the next piece of machinery arrived on our property.

One of the big scary ones...

Both men were very experienced and professional during their dutiful progress made in just a few short hours. After several trees were cut, branches cut off and steel cables were attached for pulling them all together and hauling them in one cluster up to one side of the driveway. Skills in logic were obvious as we watched a clearing in progress in the center of our sculpting area out yonder, each cluster falling there after the previous trees were gathered and gone.

That's what the cage is for, right?
Whoa, scary is right!

One of the men brought his dog as he does always, a Bouvier breed of dog who knew the routine and stayed away from the tree falling area. Our dogs were pleased to have him here, even though our children were disgusted with it peeing on their hockey net.

By day's end, all the trees were down, stacked to the side and branches gathered for future chipping. The chips will be used eventually on trails we will clear around the back of the natural forested property for riding their bikes on and general ease of walking through the thickets out there. Dreams of forts high in trees, swings dangling from branches and imaginary play are dancing in the children's heads as they can now envision their way around the property just a bit more with the success of all our tree clearing.

Sculpting and Carving now complete

This morning the men showed up again, downed trees are now becoming precision cut for firewood delivery to a customer not far away. We asked to retain a chord of wood ourselves for summer bonfires which they are thankfully obliging us by also cutting our private supply in the process of this next step.

Instantly chopped firewood!

What a time saver this equipment is!

The next step is having the landscape crew arrive to continue the thicket clearing, deliver soil and plant grass out there. The sunlight is so much brighter now that the trees are gone, so nice. Everything is finally happening with spring here, part of our "simple" planning and goal setting since the move here.

Stay tuned as we head on our way with more to come....