Brooke here:

As I wandered around the yard this past Thursday night, I kept thinking If we had to sell our house right now, no one would buy it.  This is horrible.  It looks like a disaster area.  If something happens and we had to move, we are so screwed.  Gloomy thoughts, I know, but in my defense everything was covered in large fallen trees.  And in the trees’ defense, they didn’t want to be there, either.

After the tree nearly squished us in our sleep, we asked the people who chopped it into Stumpwall-sized pieces to look around at the other trees within squishing distance and see which ones might be dying or likely to come down in a storm.   They pointed out three dying trees, two long-leafed pines and an ash, that were losing bark and limbs.  The ash was a stone’s throw away from the house (judging by my weak noodly arms, not Brown’s more stone-hucking-capable arms) but the pines were both within twenty feet of my office.   And there were some limbs on healthy trees that had grown directly over the house and needed to be taken down, just in case.

This is a Hired Dudes post through and through, by the way.  We did nothing except sit on our butts and write a check while a team of guys sawed and hacked and pulled and carted the stuff away.  I feel as though I should justify our laziness in some way, but other than to say we didn’t feel comfortable cutting down trees so close to the house, let alone going up into the trees to cut off specific branches, I can’t.  Or maybe I just did.   We didn’t want to crush our sh*t or break our necks, okay?

We did save some money by asking them to leave the stumps (I didn’t realize this meant leaving them where they fell so there are stumps everywhere and we have to move them… ), and the raw materials for Stumpwall have been replenished.

(Pupdate: Zu has finally learned how to play fetch.  I’m not sure if this is a Rottweiler trait or if both Cutter John and Zu just didn’t give a rat’s fart, but during their puppyhood they would watch me throw a ball and wonder why Lady Food Monkey was flailing and pointing.  I bring this up now as fetch has finally clicked in Zu’s head; I’ve been cleaning up by tossing sticks and smaller branches into the woods, and Zu will promptly run in and bring them back.)

Today we get to return to the fence and garden stairs project, which was delayed on account of tree.  We’ve finally nailed down the fence design.  It’s awesome.  It’s a tight lattice weave that won’t require us to regrade the front (airquote) lawn (/airquote), and we’ve finally got a Kreg jig to do the pocket holes.  I keep telling myself that if we keep at it, someday people who aren’t crazy will want to buy this house.