Let There Be Light

If only I could say those words and it would appear. I wish it were that easy....Instead we had to do the unthinkable and have seven trees chopped down this week. It wasn't something we wanted to do, but rather something we had to do in order to get more light in the house, grow some grass, and plant our garden. Seven trees is more than most people have in their entire yard! We are blessed to have many many more including 13 Douglas Firs that are each about 100 feet tall. So, cutting down the 7 Alder trees that graced our back yard (and our neighbors) didn't seem so terrible, especially since they were either split, rotting, diseased, growing in the neighbors yard, or growing towards our house. We promise to replace them with a border of arborvitae, a little grass, more native plants, some natural area, and a vegetable garden. That makes us feel better! 

This was our backyard last summer when we bought the house. We're hoping to restore it to its original grandeur and then some....

To do this dirty work we hired a fantastic company, Thomas Family Tree, headed by the youngest arborist in the state of Washington. The company came recommended to us and not only did they do an excellent job, but they put on quite a show! Two guys dangled on tree limbs, holding chain saws, while two other guys shadowed their every move to ensure the tree branches came down in one swoop. This was done by roping off the area to be cut. When the arborist sawed through the branch (or trunk) the guy on the ground would pull the rope so the tree gracefully swayed to the ground, not hitting a thing in its path! It was like a well orchestrated ballet except this was done by men, dressed in orange chaps dangling chainsaws and maneuvering ropes. Absolutely amazing! The neighbor watched from his skylight and was flabbergasted when a tree came within inches of hitting his window, but averted disaster as the men swiftly brought the tree to the ground. The next day, a stranger came to the door to say she witnessed "the art" going on in our backyard and would we recommend them? Absolutely!! 

Our backyard is now a mess and we have lots of planting to do...

But we now have a sun spot in the living room!

Now, let there be light - lots of it! And please also let there be a few dry days ahead to clean up this mess, some arborvitae trees at a good price (because we need about 30 of them), and some patience to get this all done!