Here Comes the Sun

Let me start out by saying, “Trees are Terrific!” I love, love, love trees, but with that being said, they can really cause some issues. We have 3 huge, beautiful, thick maple trees in our front yard.

The trees are so big that Avista (our power company) has to come in and cut a huge L shape out of them every few years because they get too close to the power lines.

The L in the trees from the power company

It’s hard to imagine when you are planting a little bitty tree that it will grow sooo big that it almost covers half the house, and goes halfway into the street.

The side street next to our house and our trees halfway in the middle

Also, the amount of leaves it produces every year is beautiful and back-breaking! I remember one year, Mitch was working the swing shift and I was outside in the dark with a flood light because it was going to snow the next day, I just remember telling myself, “Power through the pain, you can do this, just power through the pain.”

The start of fall with our maple trees last year

We had to put a fence between the front and back yard because the dogs would always have dirty paws.

Honeydew on my car, sprinkled with pollen.

Did you know honeydew is actually aphid poop!

The leaves were so thick getting any sunlight in the house was rare.

Such a cute little house, nestled behind the trees.

Mitch and I were talking about how much work the trees are, all year-long and how when we get older it’s just going to get harder and harder to keep up with the work. Not to mention the little helicopters (seed pods) that stain the vehicles when it rains and as they decay they release a dye known as tannins.

The conversation wasn’t interesting enough for Milo and Zoey, but Charlie pretended to care.

I started thinking…If Avista trims the trees because of their power lines, I wonder if they would just cut them down for us for free!? I googled it, I got their number and made a call. I was just kind of inquiring and the lady said that someone would go by the house and they would get back to us in probably a week. Not even two days later on a Tuesday, they called me back and had an opening to cut them down on Thursday. It was that quick! We decided the pro’s to cut them down really outweighed the con’s and said, “let’s do it.”

One last photo for the photo book before they’re gone

Avista setting up before starting to cut down the trees

They said they only cut them, and we will be responsible for the clean up

Until the house was barely visible from the street!

Zoey had some reservations about the trees being removed, but we told her she’s not the one who has to do all the work.

She said, “Fine my human pets, just get me a snack and bring me my Charlie to cuddle with.”

Avista sprayed something on the stumps so they wouldn’t begin to grow again and we are hoping to use them for flower planters.

The blue circle is now gone and soaked into the stump

We took 15 truck loads of branches over a 5 day period, so needless to say we were pretty sore and had some battle wounds to show for it.

I looked for my long sleeve work shirt but things surprisingly get lost in a such a small house.

Mitch’s gotten good use out of his chain saw.

The front part of the roof was in shock since it’d never had the summer sun shine on it before.

Hello little house, here comes the sun, do-do-do-d0 (me trying to write the tune of that song)

So how did we move all those branches you ask? We used our trusty ol’ girl aka, the truck. She also got a battle wound from the work. Mitch’s sister Annette, the sweetest soul in the world, was helping us load branches and didn’t know her own strength. haha.

One of the pieces of wood went straight into the back windshield, made a hole and next thing you know the whole window starting cracking.

Mitch got so busy cleaning it up, he forgot that I’d want pictures for stories sake.

“Wait Nettie, don’t throw that stick for Milo, it may hit the little yellow house! just kiddin sis! you’re the best.”

So now we have a blank canvas for our front yard, and have learned what type of trees we can plant up front so they don’t interfere with the power lines. I am now in search for the most beautiful dogwood tree, yipppeee.

But for now, all that wood is going to keep us warm this winter, since now the trees are gone we can get a wood stove (a life saver for around here when the power goes out in the winter time.)

The neighborhood has been surprisingly appreciative of the tree removal because it created a large blind spot for traffic.

The best part is that house isn’t any hotter! We thought for sure there would be a huge difference because of all the shade they produced, but that isn’t the case. Extremely grateful to now have sunshine in our home.