Saturday, October 25, 2008

Trees and leaves and limbs

As most of you know, I live in the middle of wooded acreage outside a small town in Missouri. We have always loved our trees - I guess to the point of ridiculous. Over the past few years we have tried and tried to grow grass but, well, we all know that grass needs sunshine to grow. And the trees had gotten so tall and the lower limbs so full, all we could grow was mud.

So after much cussin' and discussin' we decided it was time to cut a few trees down and give the rest a drastic limbcut. We haven't gotten the trees that need to be cut down, down yet, but we have been trimming things up quite a bit over the past few weeks. Last weekend, we had four of the grandsons stay all weekend and help us haul off limbs (well the 12 year old and 7 year old were somewhat of a help - the two three year olds were just fun to have around)

As is usually the case with pictures, these don't really do things justice. The actual result is dramatic. But when I took the pictures before the trimming, I stepped closer in for the shots because the branches behind were so low and full, there was no way to see the house. I should have stood back lol. But I thought I'd share anyway. I am so happy with the possibilities of sewing grass seed next year and maybe, just maybe, get some grass to grow!!!!!!

view of side of house before tree limbs were trimmed - can't see much of the house

front of our house before trees were trimmed up -

The first two pictures are shots of the house before we began trimming.

photo of the front of the house after the trees were trimmed up - brick walkway leading down to a log house

view of house and garage after trees were trimmed - the top of the garage is what I call The Loft, where my embroidery business is

These are shots taken after the trimming. It has opened things up so much! The upstairs in the garage to the left in the second picture is The Loft where I operate my embroidery business.

view I see from my kitchen table of the sun peeking through the trees

I took this picture of the sun shining through the trees the other morning while I was sitting here sipping on my second cup of coffee, browsing through all the wonderful blogs I follow.

12 comments:

ChicagoLady said...

I wouldn't care about the grass, I'll take the trees and the cool shade and cover they offer the birds and animals.

LadyStyx said...

Im with Chicago...grass means ya gotta mow...but then again, a small patch where you can run barefoot and feel the grass between ya toes once in a while would be nice too.

Intense Guy said...

I'm a tree-hugger at heart myself but I know sometimes you have to prune and tidy. My folks old house had a stand of Oak trees behind it, these were massive 4 foot in diameter trunk trees and nothing grew on the ground below them - even in the end when they went to pacasandra which sort of feebly covered the ground. Every fall the leaves they dumped was enough to fill two large dump trucks even after shedding and compacting. The back of the house, being always in the cool shade was prone to mold and rot troubles. SO a little daylight probably would have helped things.

:)

Deanna said...

LOL I'm also a tree hugger and Jim is a ... gosh, what is worse than a tree hugger? Anyway, as you can see from the last picture, we still have a nice crop of trees, and that won't change. The brick sidewalk is downright dangerous because it never got any sun and the bricks were always slick from mildew. It was time! Just a little grass is all I'm asking for...

AliceKay said...

Looks great, Punkn. You have a nice looking home and great looking property. A little grass is a lot better than mud any day. The left side of our front lawn gets very little sun. We have a lot of moss (and some kind of little fern) growing there by the porch now.

Toriz said...

Good luck getting some grass to grow.

and thanks for including descriptions with the photos. :)

Karla said...

We don't have trees in Texas..we have Mesquite "groves" which are lil trees bout 5 feet high growing in clusters...*makes not to drive out in country and take pics* I feel like I'm smothering anymore when I'm in thick forest

MarmiteToasty said...

I must admit I LOVE grass lol but I also love trees.....

Your house looks like a little log cabin in the woods in the first photo and then its NOT lol its huge....

x

Lainie said...

What a huge difference! You still have plenty of trees around for shade and that down home country feeling but I am sure some grass and flowers would look awesome too.

Deanna said...

Thanks for all the comments. Maybe next year I can post a picture that includes some green on the ground :)
Marmie, I call the house my log cabin. It started out small but has grown over the years. We built it ourselves and have changed it and expanded as our needs changed.

Jess said...

You live there?? In the gorgeous forest? Who cares about grass - you are immensely lucky!
It always distresses me when my dad trims back the apple, or holly tree in the garden. I hate seeing the stumps of branches and then the new ones growing out all weird and crooked.

junyah said...

Nice place you have there Punkies . Like that livin in the tree's affect and the widows down below to be close to the outside.Bet thats nice with a wood fire going.. Jr