TIMBER!

Our neighbors sold their house a couple of months ago....and our new neighbor decided to build a deck in the back yard, which entailed removing 5 huge trees! We had quite the learning experience over the last week. First off, Diggers Hotline made a visit to our neighborhood and struck up quite the friendship with the girls--the guy showed them all sorts of animal tracks, told them many animal tidbits (Did anyone else know that birds like to take dust baths?!), and made MANY orange markings around the neighbor's yard. The 3 Glynn Girls also received their own digger's hotline flags.

On Monday, we arrived home from gymnastics to see HUGE trucks outside our home--the tree removal had started. We immediately checked out what was happening and unfortunately, missed the neatest tree falling with the camera--the pine tree coming down. The above picture is what our neighbor's yard looked like before the big removal.

Click HERE to see the first video clip of the tree removal. And then click HERE to see more branches falling.

We thought the tree removal process would be fast....and it took nearly all day! The team cut down as many branches as they could and then made the trunks of the tree small enough that when they did fall, they didn't hit anything. They used a bucket to trim the tops of the trees and the bottom left photo shows the machine that mulched all of the branches etc. It was REALLY loud....and right outside Colin's room! Amazingly....he slept through all the racket that afternoon!

(As always, click on a collage to make it full size!)

Ellie was my tree watcher. The other girls and Colin did not like the loud sounds...so they remained inside for much of the observation. Ellie sat on her princess chair perch for most of the morning, enthralled with the operation....and noting how fast the workers worked!

This picture continues to show the progress of removing the trees. Many of these pictures are courtesy of Ellie...I eventually had to go inside to make lunch and get the little children down for their naps...and Ellie was my faithful reporter as to what was happening. The bottom left photo shows the big orange "thing" that was driving back and forth in between our house and our neighbor's home. It was quite amazing, the number of vehicles they were able to fit in that narrow strip of land!

Finally, click HERE to see the last video clip of the big tree coming down. All day, we had waited for this to happen, and it took quite some time for all of the branches to be removed. Finally, Ellie came running to get me "Hurry Mom....it's coming down!"....and I got out there just in time to capture it!

And this is the end result....a wide open and VERY sunny backyard! The neighbors behind us said now they can actually SEE the girls playing outside. Before, they could only hear children playing!

All in all, it was quite the experience to witness....what an involved process!