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Look out, she’s coming down! Good-bye to our BIG, OLD and BEAUTIFUL, but very SICK and DIRTY tree…

June 25

Good-bye, Old Frenemy!!

2014-06-22 12.03.30It was definitely a love-hate relations ship. Our 40-year-old maple tree, that provided us with gentle breezes and cooling shade had to come down last week. It had become a dangerous tree, hollow in the middle and hanging on by a thread.

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In our backyard, the 40-year-old Manitoba (or Norway) Maple stands roughly 80 feet high. We bought the house in January 2013, and had no idea was a mess the yard was in, thanks to this beautiful, but sick, hazardous and dirty tree.
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This is just one small area of the eaves troughs. We had to lay a big tarp on the ground to catch the mud-like filth that Peter scooped out. It looked disgusting and smelled terrible!! We won’t miss doing this job!!

Although we miss the beauty of the tree, we do not miss the filth that it continually dropped on our yard and into our eaves troughs. Cleaning the eaves troughs was an annual all-day (grueling) job, made even more difficult because of the heat and blistering sun.

The black seeds that the tree dropped clogged our eaves troughs and was ruining our roof. That big old tree also drank up every drop of rain and sprinkler water so that none of our other plants and flowers stood a fighting chance.

The most visible (and irritating) thing about that old tree was never having a clean and beautiful yard.

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This is what we faced every single day. I love a pristine yard, so you can image my level of frustration. Also glad we got the tree cut down before it FELL down!! It was hollow–in fact, the tree-cutter put a rake handle into the Y of the tree, where the two biggest branches met the main trunk, and it was hollow as far down as the rake handle could reach. YIKES!!

So, while we miss its beauty, the shade it provided and the much needed breezes, we are very excited about being able to have meals on our patio (under our new shade-providing gazebo).

I have replanted all of the shrubs and flowers that I had to dig up before the tree-cutters could start their work (photos to come). Phew! It’s been a busy couple of weeks.

But, it’s DONE and I’m heading out to our CLEAN patio to relax with a big cold drink!! Oh, by the way, any recommendations for a nice clean tree? I’m thinking birch clump…

 

Following are some photos of the tree-cutting in progress. It was as good as watching a movie!

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Looking somewhat alien, here's the tree with just three big branches left to cut down. And then, the job of cutting down the main trunk, which was 10 feet in circumference!!
Looking somewhat alien, here’s the tree with just three big branches left to cut down. And then, the job of cutting down the main trunk, which was 10 feet in circumference!!

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