Saturday Family Chore

Since before we even had the offer accepted on our Lindon house, we said that the Blue Spruce in the front yard had to go! I don't like how big and fat Blue Spruces end up and I think they are ugly trees. There was a Blue Spruce BUSH planted in the front yard that wasn't pruned regularly and turned into a big, ugly Blue Spruce Tree-Bush-Thing in a very small space. It didn't grow straight and it was competing with a nearby Aspen. Our neighbors hated the Bush-Tree-Thing and kept cutting it back so it didn't overgrow onto their yard. All along we planned to remove the spruce this fall. Yesterday, I decided that I'd had it with the Bush-Tree-Thing and took the bypass pruners to it. I hacked and hacked at it until I made a hole big enough to get in close enough to the trunk to take the bow saw and hatchet to it. I think it drives Dan nuts when I get these "bees in my bonnet" and start a project that is too big for me to finish on my own! Anyway, we got up today and decided that as a family, we would attack the Bush-Tree-Thing and get it down. I went out and used the bow saw and cut out a wedge. Then I took the hatchet to the wedge. I tied a clove hitch to the trunk and Dan, Jonathan, and Nolan tried to pull it over. More hatchet, more pulling, more hatchet, more pulling, then finally, hatchet, hatchet, hatchet, timber! The top of the tree was down! There was still about a 5 foot high section of tree left. Dan went to work cutting off the lower branches and the rest of the stump. I raked out the spruce needles that were about a foot deep. Jonathan and Nolan moved the top of the Bush-Tree-Thing onto the grass, then hauled the branches off to the field behind the house (and left them to compost themselves). Miles, contentedly stayed in his backpack on Dan's back and ate a sugar cookie. I love it when it's 1 p.m. and I feel we've already completed a big task. Oh, and I learned the proper Boy Scout way to carry and hatchet and how to pass it to another person safely (the magic phrase is "thank you").
Miles, the cookie monster, and Dan.
Hauling the tree top to the grass. Jonathan is all about safety! See, he is prepared with work gloves and safety glasses to protect his eyes from the Spruce needles (no, I'm not mocking him... I got a branch in the eye last night and it hurt!)


"Working together, helping each other; that's what families do-oooo" (inside family joke!)