Crime Against Nature

I cannot decide whether the title of this post should be 'Crime Against Nature,' 'The Smartest Thing we Have Ever Done,' or 'It All Started with a Cocktail.' It is/was a bittersweet event, one that had immediate positive consequences. It was expensive, took an entire day and provided free (well, not really free) entertainment for our kids, the kids behind us and several neighbors.

We have been pondering this event for quite some time with talk becoming very serious here lately. Last Thursday evening, Holly was out back having a drink and watching the kids swim when she decided that the scraggly-looking bushes that grow along the fence needed to go, so she got a saw and cut them all down. We went to a local nursery the next day and got some replacement plants and then decided that a small tree in the same area needed to go, so she and I cut that down ourselves on Sunday (and both got our butts kicked along with a nice dose of poison ivy - mother nature's pay back?). Since we were on such a roll, we called our landscaper neighbor who came over to discuss the grand finale to our pool landscaping project and a plan was made.

The grand finale involved cutting down a Magnolia tree. A giant, four trees in one Magnolia tree that has been dropping leaves, petals, stems and cones into our pool all summer long for well over ten years. It has been beating up our roof, filling the gutters and littering the entire pool area with its droppings as well. I will not even tell you what happens when a storm with high winds rolls through - it's not pretty!

It was a beautiful tree, it was just in the wrong location. It's gone. A team of four men, one of them possibly related to Ta.rzan, took an entire day and took the tree down piece by earth-shaking piece. It was bittersweet. Now, we have no shade, however, we also have no mess, no tree debris clogging up the pool filter and no threat to our roof, not to mention the time each day spent out there cleaning up from the tree that constantly rained leaves, etc. into our favorite place to be during the summer.

Here is a photo documentary of the event, courtesy of my Black.Berry:

Before

About half way there:

The final piece: Tarz.an with his saw:

TIMBER! The dirt cloud was enormous.

The end result. A open, clean and sunny pool area.