Timber part 2

Last weekend we worked on taking down a tree in our backyard. The 'fun' continued this past weekend when we (and by we, I mean Michael and some friends) took down the big tree trunk and started on an even BIGGER tree in our front yard.

Here are a few highlights:

Two big pieces had already been cut...and here Michael is prepping to do the final cut down to the stump.

A friend made the last cut while Michael and another friend were ready at the ropes to pull the tree into the yard (instead of letting it fall on the house). Isa decided to grab the end of the rope and 'help' too. :)

Uh oh...the chainsaw got stuck.

The guys cut the big logs into smaller pieces. While we were all outside last night, Michael decided to set the pieces up as a little obstacle course for the kids. They were thrilled!

The pieces are all arranged in a circle around the stump. The kids literally ran/jumped around this circle for an hour last night. And first thing this morning they were asking to go out again!

Henry wasn't as interested in climbing as he was playing with wood chips! 

The big tree was reduced to a large pile of brush, a big pile of firewood, and the bigger trunk pieces. I plan on keeping one of the biggest chunks and turning it into a side table in our basement. We'll see how that goes. Friends will take the firewood, and at some point we'll have to rent a chipper and get rid of the brush. (ugh...the tree work never ends)

This is the tree in our front yard. You can see a little bit of another big firewood pile in the foreground of the picture. Michael actually cut quite a few branches...but this tree is MUCH bigger than the backyard one. He thought he could take it down, but the lift wasn't tall enough and, as he put it, he's not gutsy enough to take this one down. Guess we'll have to hire it out. At least we saved a whole lot of money by doing the backyard one ourselves!