So there was once this tree. A beautiful, healthy, large thriving poplar Tree. It stood majestically on the Northeast corner of our property right before my garden. I had nothing against this tree-in fact I loved it.
My favorite thing about our home is the actually LOT in which our home sits. One day (we are talking a year from now) some lucky buyer will literally Drive our house off this lot and we will be left with a True Gem. Large spacious yard with beautiful full grown trees lining the entire property. Throw in a kick butt garden plot and a soon to be vegetable pit- and you can see why I love this place. The trees are a big part of that Love.
Back to that one tree. This one to be precise:
Over the last couple of weeks John and I have been dreaming about starting a small orchard. We are talking 3 maybe 4 trees. A couple of apple trees, maybe a cherry tree, John wants to try his luck at a pear tree...you get the idea. We plan to plant our trees in a couple of weeks and sadly the spot we want to plant them is occupied by none other then this old poplar. We want to line our garden with the new trees but they would never do very well next their much larger competitor for nutrients. So a decision was made.
The tree had to go.
Step 1: Get permission from our neighbor seeing as the tree lies mostly on his property line. That was a must.
Step 2: Invite John's Dad over for Dinner.
(But suggest that perhaps he come over a few hours early) Tricky eh. He's a handy father in law to have when it comes to all things that grow.
Step 3: Cut a wedge into the tree- that will cause it to lean a direction.
See it Lean. It's leaning!!!!!
Step 4: Get out of the way. That is important. A tree like this comes crashing down!
I was actually on the phone with my sister-in-law luci at the time and she could hear the tree cracking as it fell. This part made me really sad and regretful actually. Have you ever seen the cartoon movie Fern Gully? I felt like "Hexus" the evil nemesis who tries to ruin the rain forest by destroying every tree in it's path. I felt like him. No wait- I felt like I was MARRIED to "Hexus."
Step 4: Retreat into the house and let "Hexus the tree killer" clean up the mess he's made.
For the next several hours John and his Dad cut wood, hauled wood and worked on digging out this stubborn and deeply rooted stump. And I mean they worked. They hacked at the roots, neighbors drove by with trucks and tried pulling the tree out. John pushed. john Pulled. John Jumped on it. That stump was NOT going to budge.
Finally that evening the men took a much needed break in which they came in for that dinner we had promised my Father in law. I proved to be a real winner when I served the desert. A homemade cherry blueberry pie. The cherries were hand picked from my father in laws yard last year. It would have been a beautiful pie- had I remembered to remove the PITS from the CHERRIES! So after damaging their teeth on desert the men headed back out to attack that stubborn old stump.
The wonderful thing about living in this town is that it doesn't take long before a member of your ward Elder's Quorom presidency drives by and offers assistance. Even better when said ward member owns one huge mamma jamma of a tow truck.
This was cool to see and it drew quite a crowd.
Even with the tow truck this was not an easy stump to pull. I love how in this photo you might not see it well- but the front of the truck was actually lifted about a foot in the air!
After one broken chain, and another broken cabel out came the last remaining part of that tree.
John filled in the massive whole, raked up all remnants of branches and debris and this morning when we awoke it was almost as if there never was a tree there. It has actually made me sad when talking to people about it and they say, "Oh I never even noticed that tree." Poor little tree. To have grown so big and tall and been so unnoticed.
Well that leaves an empty spot in which we promise promise PROMISE we will be replanting three more fruit trees of some sort in it's place.
So we aren't that bad.
....are we?
