The Rest of the Front Yard Tree Gets Cut Down
Remember when the birch tree near our house took a hit in a storm last summer and left us with this one sad leaning section? Zach finally had enough of it and decided to take matters into his own hands and cut it down.
Taking down big trees like this is such a shame, especially because of the shade it gave our front yard. And having all of these mature trees was another big part of what drew us to this neighborhood. But you know we'll be replacing it and then some. It's a perfect spot so we not only wanted to cut it down, but grind the stump down in hopes of being able to use this spot to plant again. To save money, Zach decided to cut it down himself. We all know he just wanted an excuse to bust out his chainsaw...
...and his new lumberjack hat! ;)
Cutting Down the Tree
Zach's classic tree trimming/parenting move: put the kids at the end of the rope to help pull the tree the direction we want it to fall. Hank looks thrilled here. Let's just say this is a better idea than it is a tool in the process, especially for a big leaning the other way tree.
He cut a wedge or two out of the tree on the side we wanted it to fall before cutting through the tree. For the record, the tree fell the direction of the wedge... which wasn't exactly where we wanted it to fall. ;) Do what we say, not what we do. Good news is it still cleared the house and the neighbor's plants.
Once down, he got to work cutting off the branches into keeper sections for firewood and twig groups for composting.
Teacher on the weekdays. Lumberjack on the weekends.
After everything was cleaned up. we were left with a stump and a big wide open space out front.
Grinding Down the Tree Stump
We missed all the action on this, but we hired a tree service to come and grind out and down the existing stump.
Zach moved all the plants and rocks in that part of the plant bed so they didn't get damaged in the process and so we'd have a clean slate to work with when we go to replant.
Under all that new tree mulch, we've got about an 18" hole where the tree stump was to work with.
Now the real fun begins... deciding what kind of tree to put out here in this primo location!
Need a tree fix? Here's what we used:
Echo Gas Powered Chain Saw affiliate
Lumberjack Hat (Zach got his at J.Crew but this one is a quick ship option) affiliate
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