Goodbye Shady Friends!

A little over 16 years ago we planted two Cottonless Cottonwood trees in our yard.  When my Dad first saw them, I think he told us that we should take them out -- but we didn't.  They have, in many ways, been good trees.  They have provided shade, which, it turns out, kept our neighbor's siding from bending in the sun.  They have provided branches for my children to climb in, and leaves for us to rake, and rake, and rake, and jump in, and rake some more.  Unfortunately, they also provided roots that lifted the sidewalk, broke the curbing around the yard, and made it really, really hard to mow, or even to walk across the lawn without tripping.  We decided we'd better take them out before they damaged something else.

This is Dan saying goodbye to the tree by the driveway.

The tree by the mailbox must be given equal consideration!

Here is our tree, and the truck that would help take it down.

Last Tuesday, the trees came down and were hauled away.  Every now and then I stepped out the door and snapped a picture.  I could feel the ground shake when the big pieces of branch came crashing down!

The boom is up.  The first branch is down.

Notice that the big giant trunk is not touching the ground.  It left a few minutes later.

The second tree -- already half gone.  Sad.

This was a Mater like truck that hauled the branches and trunks away.

Our view has definitely changed!  We see the mountains better -- and now I see my neighbor's house out my front window again!  It's extra sunny in the front yard too.

The next day, with all of the leaves and branches gone, our nice tree cutter came back to grind the stump down -- and some of the massive roots.

Saturday the cleanup started, including pulling the giant root out from under the lifted sidewalk.  It had grown along the whole eight foot length of sidewalk, and was probably 5 or 6 inches in diameter. It took the truck a lot of yanking to get it out.  Unfortunately, the sidewalk didn't sink back to its original level!

 Our yard is still a mess, with orange and black bags of trunk shrapnel all over.  We still have roots to pull out, and a yard to level.  We also need to dig through the rocks, clay, and roots to plant new trees so that we can start growing some more shady friends :-)