Tiiiiiimberrrrr

I think I have briefly mentioned how I am SICK of painting! Seriously, I cannot wait for the house painting to be done. The entire house has at least one coat of paint, and we've begun the second coat but it's a s.l.o.w. process.

(I did paint the front door, though. And I can't wait to show it to you soon!)

We started out this past weekend by painting, but then quickly switched over to another project because we were able to borrow a gigantic lift and needed it to take down a tree in our backyard. It's SO sad to see some of our big trees die. The trees are one of the major things that drew us to our house in the first place. :(

We've been gathering quotes from different companies to take three trees down...and it's insane! The serious quotes (you know...the ones from companies who are actually bonded and insured) range from $6500 to $9500 for our three humongous trees.

The lowest cost has been to get rid of the one in the back since it's the shortest of the three...and not near the powerlines. With the 45-foot platform we borrowed, we hoped to tackle it ourselves. I think this is what you could call extreme DIY and we're a little crazy for attempting it! (actually, my husband is the crazy one, I never would have even thought it was possible to DIY something like this)

First things first, when the kids saw the cool lift they all wanted a ride...

And, randomly, we had a little break the first morning to stop and look after a stray pet bird that found its way into our back yard. Emma was thrilled and wanted to keep it! But it finally got tired of the noise level from the kids and flew away.

Back to work. This was near the beginning of the first day. Ugh...it was hard work and the weather was sweltering. I think the temperature on both days we worked on the tree was 90ish. I don't know how Michael did it because he was up high with NO shade for hours on end.

We cleared what seemed like thousands of sticks from the ground at the end of day 1. The picture below is about halfway through day 2 when the tree looked more manageable...but the dangerous part was happening. The lift didn't go all the way to the top of the tree so we had to rely on my big muscles (yep...you read that right) as I tugged on a long rope to try to get the branches to land in the yard...and not on the house, the fence, or our neighbor's garage. Scary! (thankfully all went well)

The branches of the tree had really cool little markings on them...almost like cave drawings. We think these are lines eaten away by some kind of bug??? If that's what it is...no wonder the tree died. These patterns were everywhere!

Finally 'done.' We cut as much as we could before we decided to quit while we were ahead and wait for another weekend with more muscle power to pull the trunk in the right direction. This is the view from the boys' bedroom upstairs. At least it still looks like there are lots of trees around...but we'll really miss this one.

 R.I.P. big tree