So we have this tree...

And it's a dead tree. Okay it's only mostly dead, and there is a big difference between all dead and mostly dead, but in this case the difference is you must be cut down if you are mostly dead. So after spending all morning at church working on the yard there we came home to cut down a few of our own trees and bushes. We borrowed the chainsaw from mom. Here is our dead tree located on the corner of our property:

Clearly this second tree is not dead. But it grew from a shoot that someone should have pulled out. It's in a bad place and it puts shoots all over our yard, it's going to go too...

Starting the chainsaw, it doesn't start up very quickly, this took a while. I almost took a video so that you could enjoy the suspense that I enjoyed. But I got bored and started doing something else...

It took a little push, to help guarantee that it didnt' fall on the truck or the power boxes.

And success! No more dead tree!

I swear to you that the second this tree hit the ground our neighbors from all around came running over to tell us what a great job we are doing and how hard we are working and how happy they are that we are their neighbors and that that tree has been dead forever and finally it's gone, and the people before us were awful! I think you get the drift, Bryce and I now think that we are pretty cool and our heads have grown slightly after the neighborly praise.

Look I put it in the truck! That runs! All the way to the dump and back several times!



Ah, yes, but as is right on par for me, the chainsaw broke down before we could cut down tree number two...

But one of those awesome neighbors giving us praise heard about our little problem and came running with their chainsaw! Almost literally, I swear to you these people could not be more excited that we are cutting down trees. I thought we would be making them mad with all the noise, but no.

So the little chainsaw that could (barely) cut down tree number two. Bryce is taking it to the dump right now, I opted out on a second trip to the dump today. Bryce and I in the truck + two dogs is not super comfy. So I said I would stay home and mow the lawn, clearly that is getting done.



Here is a really bad "After" picture of the corner. For some reason I take blurry pictures at night. But you get the idea, there is nothing left, we took out the bushes too (they are in this picture but they have already been cut down). Now we will work on the soil and then start planting new trees and flowers.

We had so much fun meeting more of our neighbors and we feel so lucky that they are all so kind and generous. After only having talked for 10 minutes, Andy brought over his chainsaw and said we could bring it back whenever we are done with it, no hurry. It kinda feels like a small town :)