Saturday, April 18, 2009

2 Trees Leave

It happened very quickly. Yesterday, Friday, began with 2 sugar maple trees standing in our front yard as they have since before any of us lived here. Within a matter of hours the landscape of our front yard had completely changed. The trees were gone; cut down, removed by a landscaping company hired by my son, James.

Paula has wanted to trim; shape; or, ultimately; remove the trees for a few years now. A couple of times over the last year we’ve gotten estimates on the price of removal but never found one that fit our budget. This past Wednesday James, told us that he had arranged with a tree removal contractor he knows from work to have the trees removed from our front yard on Friday. Best of all, HE was paying for it.
Paula agreed to this. Problems with falling limbs, decaying leaves, and nesting birds (including an owl or two) had pretty much swayed her decision to finally give permission for the maples to be taken down.

Yesterday I woke up early because the contractor was supposed to be there between 9 & 9:30 in the morning. As it turned out they didn’t get there until after 1:30.

Once they started they worked quickly. By the time I left for work, a little over an hour after they got there, the first tree was already down. The job was finished later that afternoon.

After work, James brought home a truck load of top soil and two dogwood trees which he planted in the front yard. Dogwoods are the kind of trees Paula had said she’d always wanted in the front yard.

So now our front yard is completely open. The view of our house from the street and vice versa gives a very different perspective. I don’t doubt that there will be benefits to having a more open view of our neighborhood. But so far the only one I’ve seen is that our dogs have more to bark at when the front door is open.

James has made the regeneration of our front lawn his “pet project.” He’s added top soil, planted new trees, and is going to, hopefully, grow some grass.

Now that the view of our house from the street is completely open I’m afraid that the cosmetic flaws of the outside of the house will translate into “honey do” chores for me. Not really but it will mean the outside of the house will need some attention and fix up in the near future because now the neighbors are watching.

No comments: