Yard Work

Today we tackled the yard.  Our goal was to take out the dead tree in the middle of our front yard (it may not look dead in the photo because the foliage from the other tree is behind it, but trust me - it's dead.)  And to take out that tree in the garden.  It may look nice but that thing is the worst tree ever, covered in huge thorns.  Not the best tree for a yard that will have kids running around it.  We were also planning on planting a few plants to replace the tree, removing that post behind the tree (why was it even there?), and to remove the trellis that's to the right of the porch.

Here's the before picture:

While we were taking the thorn tree down (who thought it was a good idea to plant in the first place?), I realized that we hadn't really thought this through.  How were we going to get rid of this tree?  We didn't have any way of hauling it away.  Plus, those roots were really deep, and proved nearly impossible to dig out.  

Luckily, our neighbors were also doing yard work today.  Our neighbors were laying down sod in their yard, and had lots of handy equipment.  They offered to help us pull out the tree root, if we didn't mind them driving up on our yard.  Of course we didn't mind!  We were so grateful for them to offer.  So our neighbors dad came over with some handy little vehicle and helped us pull the tree out.  It still took time.  There was one root that we hadn't sawed that was holding in the blasted tree.  So, once Connor took care of that, it lifted out really easily.

That was one stubborn, stupid tree.  I'm really glad it's gone.  Our neighbor's father even offered to haul away the tree to some place behind his house.  Seriously they are so nice!  We were/are really grateful.

We put Andy on his leash so he could hang out with us outside. 

So once we got that blasted tree out, we got rid of the other dead tree in the front yard.  Plus, we were able to pull out the wooden post, which was apparently cemented in.  Then we planted a couple of plants/flowers, and we got a planter and plant for our porch.  

Here's the after photo:

As you can see, we did not get the trellis out.  We're going to have to work on the side of the house another day.  Take the trellis down, and put grass in the side of the house.  Plus, most of those plants on that side are half dead.  

However, that will have to get done another day.  We are exhausted, but really pleased with how it all turned out.  

 And, for fun, here are some cute pictures of Andy: