Timber!

Well, we finally did it.

This weekend we got the tree in our front yard removed.

I was very sad about it, and tried to use every argument in the book.  The tree was diseased and needed to come down, and me ignoring that wasn't going to change the fact that the tree could fall over and hurt someone or something.

Here's the before picture of our house:

I was standing across the street in our neighbor's yard, tilting the camera to try to get all the tree in.  I'm noticing now, that I missed a few feet at the top! 

The red arrow on this picture is to show this particular branch.  That particular branch, which was about the length of the arrow when it was cut, fell across the entire street and knocked leaves off the tree that was about 3 feet behind where I took this picture.  The tree is a lot bigger than it looks!

You can totally tell from this picture that there is something wrong with the tree.  It has no leaves and all it's neighbors are barely turning colors.

Here's the after picture:

Poor sad nekkid little house.

The pile of wood that is there was all that the tree removers didn't turn into wood chip.

Not a lot of wood. Basically the trunk and the lower big branches.

We took a few of the smaller pieces for our fire pit, and the tree removers took the rest.  At least that was the plan.  They went to cut down another diseased tree a few houses down, and they said they were going to pick up the wood when they were done.  We had 3 people, including the mailman, ask if they could have the wood not 15 minutes after the tree cutters drove down the street.  Two people just came and loaded up their car trunks without asking, and another person came to the door to see if we were selling the wood.  Who knew that wood turned people into vultures. 

Here's a good picture of what the Emerald Ash Borer does to your tree:

I didn't peel that bark away.  It fell off in the tree removal process.

That's what those pests do.  They lay their eggs in the tree and the larvae burrow their way around and eat their way out.  The bark gets detached from the interior wood and the tree dries out and rots and then falls over and goes smash. 

If you look carefully you can see little holes in the two logs next to the squiggly log.  Those are from our friendly neighborhood woodpecker.  He was none too happy that these men were cutting down HIS tree.  He was still trying to eat the bugs when they whipped out their chainsaws.  Poor little guy. 

Well, I guess he could just go in the back yard and snack on the bugs in the ash tree back there.