.....And She's Down...!!

Bet'cha you were thinking
that this was going to be a post about
me doing something really stupid
and falling over something,
didn't you?

Well...I won't lie to you.
I've had my fair share of cartoonish mishaps and clutzy maneuvers in my life ~

Like the time I was hauling a 40 lb bag of kitty litter out of the back of my SUV.
I had forgotten that Hubby had put the trailer hitch back on it
for me to haul the trailer full of mulch around the property.


Yup.
You guessed it.

While hugging that litter bag,
I turned, hit the hitch with my shin,
and promptly fell head over heels into the grass -

the litter bag landing on top of me.


NOT a pretty sight.


I remember thinking 
"Ow!! Ow! Ow!! I think I broke it!"

#2 vanity-driven thought was,

"Oh, good gravy...
did the roofers reshingling our house just see me do that...???!!"

#3 vanity-driven thought was:


"Ok. 
Graceful. Get up graceful-like, you ninny...

#4 thought:


"Yeah.....right...
with a litter bag laying on top of me....??"

I hobbled around with a huge dent in my shin for weeks after that.

{You're welcome for your laugh for the week.}


But
I digress.


You all know Heaven's Walk as looking like this
on a spectacular late summer day.

This photo was taken about four years ago before the new dark green shingles were put on,
before I created the semi-circular garden beds in the backyard,
before we put up the big white arbor back there
(and before the dent in my leg).

I guess it's time I updated the exterior photos of our home. A lot has been accomplished in the six years we've lived here.

Well, this is what Heaven's Walk looked like on December 11.

A beautifully sunny but verrrry cold winter day.
The temps topped out at 25 degrees.

Yeah...it was cccccold.

And that was the day that the once lovely old maple
and graced our property
and hugged our home
for 130 years 
was to be taken down.

It was a bittersweet day for us.

We had been concerned about it after seeing more and more random branches falling after slight winds,
and noticing more and more dead limbs that didn't produce any leaves.
We were also concerned with it being planted only 24" away from the house,
what it might be doing to our foundation.

So, the difficult decision was made to have it removed.

The guys showed up bright and early at 9am bundled up against the cold weather.
We were all glad for the weak warmth of the sunshine.

(And yes....I was out there, too - looking like the Michelin woman...
Nobody was going to call THIS gal a wimp.)


The first thing they did was to decide where to "fell" it.
Then, they wrapped a huge chain around the bottom of the 48" trunk,
and attach a snatch-strap to a large limb
which was then attached to the hitch on a truck.

The truck drove out into the apple orchard (to the left of the house) and pulled the strap tight.
They first cut off one of the extremely large limbs that spanned the width of our house,
then started in on notching the base of the tree.

After insuring that everyone was safely out of the way,
the strap being pulled tight,
and the notch completed...

MIC and son conferring final steps to be taken

the chainsaw began making it's way through the decades of growth.

I was amazed how quickly it bit through that wide base.

Within 10 minutes
she was down
with a
HUGE 
crash
and billowing snow.

The ground shivered like an earthquake just rolled through.

"MIC" (Man-in-Charge) wiped his brow,
grateful that the trunk didn't "bite" back into the house
and cause any damage to the foundation or air conditioner.

It fell absolutely perfect
and actually only did minor damage to my old "Dr. Suess" pear tree that I wanted saved.
It's where I hang all of my bird feeders
and where the deer visit every evening.
It's referred to as my Dr. Suess tree because it looks like something right out of his books;
kind of lop-sided and wonky.

The tree fell right between the other old maple and the old pear tree.

The landscape of Heaven's Walk was forever changed.

Hubby actually counted all the rings.

One-hundred and thirty-two to be exact,
with a nine foot circumference.

She was an amazing old tree.

Now the real work began.
Cutting up all that wood,
carrying and carting piles and piles of brush into the woods
for protection for all the little creatures out there,
and stacking smaller diameter pieces into a trailer.

We all worked up a sweat and only took one break....

for lunch.

I certainly didn't have to work out on my elliptical that day.

MIC's son on the left, Hubby in the gray sweatshirt, Tom, our neighbor in the black coat, and MIC's grandson in red.

MIC and his son kept busy cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting.

We kept busy hauling and hauling and hauling and hauling brush
waaaaay out into the woods.
We kept looking back the house ~
amazed at how different it looked.

Pear tree center of photo

I raked twigs and sawdust (and snow...) into piles;
MIC and his son kept cutting;
Grandson kept stacking,
Hubby and Tom kept hauling....

for  h o u r s.

The only damage done to my pear tree was the one broken limb you see on the left. Still long enough to hang a feeder from.

After the smaller pieces of wood were stacked in the trailers
to be used for heating MIC's and his son's homes,
the larger pieces of wood were mechanically split.


The entire job was completed and we called it a day at 4pm.

We were all exhausted
but very happy with the way everything turned out that day.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On the way home from church the next morning,
Hubby and I noticed how different Heaven's Walk looked.

Larger.

Like she could  


b r e a t h e 

now.

It was a little warmer that day,
so we replanted the little pine tree outside the kitchen window
that Hubby had removed to protect it.

Did anyone notice the white freshly painted railing on the widow's walk that was completed by Yours Truly this summer.....? Lovely, is it not?

I rehung the bird feeders on the old pear tree
and within 5 minutes
the chickadees, nuthatch, and finches who were all wondering where their food was,
returned for their breakfast.

We will be planting a pine tree
or two...
or three...
at the corner of the house
 where I've always wanted some ~

on this side of the stump, mind you.

We'll have that huge stump ground down first.
Fresh mulch will be laid over the area in the spring so that the
sweet woodruff can take hold.

Photo taken late spring 2010

Thank you, dear Old Maple ~
for shading our house during hot summer days,
throwing your brightly colored leaves across the lawn in the autumn like confetti
(which...yes....did drive me crazy....but the colors were pretty),
and standing like a guardian to our home for so many years.

You will be missed.

But you are now providing heat for two families this winter.

BEFORE

AFTER

[ Blessings ]

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