Christmas in July (?)

Sunday morning, before the temperature climbed to today's high of 103 degrees, Scott quickly dispatched two trees in the west yard.  One tree was the victim of pine wilt disease; the other (a spruce) was irreparably damaged by the falling locust on Lumberjack Day.  The area west of the addition needs to be graded so that it has better drainage...so it was time.

The two new stumps add a sad accent to the desolate landscape.

One good thing about chopping down the trees: 

 Scott got the Ranger out to pull two large chunks of the pine to the milling pile.  He'll have some decent pine lumber to play with!

The second good thing about chopping down the trees:

The top of the dying Ponderosa pine was still in Christmas Card condition.  Since framing of the new addition is to begin this week, we are going to keep this piece to use in the traditional "topping out" ceremony.  We'll place the tree on top the new roof structure to symbolize growth and bring luck to the rest of our project.

Stay Tuned for Our Next Adventure!