In Which We Finish the Tree Clean-Up Project

Two weekends ago, a big storm brought down a 60-foot maple into our front yard. Fortunately, it was not near the house. It narrowly missed my husband's car, but it took out our power, phone, and Internet, and made quite a big mess. A day later, power, phone, and Internet were restored and I'd spoken to the insurance company.

A neighbor who is a buddy of my husband's showed up that same night to take a look at the devastation, and he arrived the next afternoon with chainsaws and a strong will to work. He and my husband did two days of heavy lifting, chopping up the big stuff, which got us off to a good start.

After that, there was a lot of hauling of brush and rolling and stacking of wood. Last weekend, we were thrilled when the right front side of the yard (where lots of the debris had been stacked) was cleared. The branches ended up in five brush piles in the woods, new habitat and winter cover for our birds.

Then we got started on clearing the main part of the mess, in the left front yard. My husband stacked the branches in a big pile and I hauled them, using brute strength and my trusty yard cart, into the woods. I made a bunch more brush piles for the birds. (Oh, and the birds had already started moving into the ones I'd made on the right side the day before!)

As we cleared things away, I learned some things. One is that the tree that fell was rotten at the very heart, which is why it fell when the big winds came. Second is that the tree was sort of a "double" tree, with two round parts. Third is that it took several other, littler trees along down when it fell.

And four: the tree that fell may actually have been on my neighbor's property, not mine! "You know," I said to my husband, "I'm not even sure this is OUR TREE."  He waited a few beats and replied wryly, "Well, it is NOW."

Friday was my first of 10 days off. I'm adding several days of vacation to the Labor Day holiday to create a mini vacation, my first full week off (other than the nice Christmas break we all get at Penn State in December) in about eight years. We do hope to have some fun, but first, we wanted to take care of business. And so we did.

On this morning, I went into the yard with a strong will and determination that this would be the end of it. So for three hours, I hauled branches and sawdust, and added to the brush piles. In the end, I had six new piles and had added to one original brush pile we already had (onto which the tree that came down actually fell, conveniently enough).

My husband came out and helped, and we made great progress. The sole came off my work shoe, but I put a rubber band around it and kept on working. Nothing would deter me from meeting my goals!

And in the end, this is what it looked like. This is a view of our project, and you can see how much of the yard we have cleared. There is my trusty 15-year-old yard cart, taped up in spots but still rolling; it is one of the best and most useful things I ever bought as a homeowner and I highly recommend it.

I've decided to keep some thick, flat slices of the maple tree's trunk as little seats. There are five of them just off to the right; you can only see the first two. And there in front of me is the yard, blessedly clear again. Hooray!

The guy who helped us out with the chainsawing is getting the wood. There is much more of it than it looks like in this photo. He came later in the day after this photo was taken and took a whole truck load's worth. The remaining load will have to wait for another day.

He is taking the wood to his cabin, where he will split it, and it will keep him warm on the winter days. He's also getting a couple of cases of beer as a thank-you, as per his request. It is a small price to pay for all of his help.

I counted it up and we have just under 40 total person-hours into this project. I am a hard worker, and my husband is too. We accomplished the project in less than two weeks. I can't say that it's been fun, but it's been rewarding to get the mess taken care of so we can see the front yard again. And now to have some fun!

Here is my soundtrack song: Bachman-Turner Overdrive, with Takin' Care of Business.