Timber!

We had a couple of trees growing over the roof of our house. In fact, both were draped in a nerve-wracking manner over the master bedroom. And, since they are calling for a colder-than-user winter and there's always a chance of freezing rain, (and because one of the trees had a big hollow area at the base) we decided this would be the optimum time to look into getting those trees taken out or trimmed back. Fortunately, we also got a great referral who gave us a very reasonable quote for taking the two offending trees out, as well as cleaning up the rest of the trees in the yard. They actually did a better job than I expected on trimming the trees, and they did a fabulous job overall. I tried to get a few pictures of the process, but I didn't think to take any "before" pictures.

This is the big tree in the backyard we wanted taken out. (And yes, I know I have an problem with taking tilted pictures. I kind of like it, but not so much here.)

This is the front cluster of trees getting trimmed.

 The tree on the left (you can barely see the trunk) is the one that is came out of the front. You can't see it, but there's a man strapped to it that is cutting off branches.

A picture from further away of the front.

The cool wood-chipper doo-hickey-thingama-bobber.

A better picture of the tree in back. The lowest of the branches have already been cleared here.

And this is the same tree, more branches gone.

This is the crazy fool expert tree guy who trimmed the front trees back. He's hanging in a harness or something from the trees. At least he's strapped on tight.

And the back tree came down! (Olivia swears she heard someone yell "Timber!" I wouldn't be surprised.)

I was really impressed with what a good job this crew did in general safety procedures. Not just to protect themselves, but to protect my house. You can see the rope dangling there that they would tie to big branches they were going to cut off, thus making sure nothing crashed down on anyone (or anything) unexpectedly.

And this my friends, is what the bottom of the tree in back looked like. I am so glad it isn't hanging over my bedroom ceiling any more! And the nice gents also cut the trunk down so we can use it for firewood. Guess we need to get an ax and a wedge to split it with, now.

The After Pictures

This tree isn't in any of the other photos, but trust me when I say that it had the most low-hanging branches of them all. Now it's off the fence and out of my hair - literally!

The tree in the back is gone, and the tree by the fence (that was hidden by the tree) is nicely groomed. We have a whole usable section of yard now that we didn't before. AND sunlight coming through our living room windows. Woot, woot!

And last, but not least, the trees in front. The one in back is gone, and the three in front are looking great! 

We didn't realize how gloomy our house looked indoors without direct sunlight, but now that we have it, it makes me smile. I'm sure there's a good gospel analogy in there somewhere, but honestly it's late and I'm tired. You'll have to do your own deep thinking on that one.