What a day. It started out normal enough. Sera woke up, drank her bottle, and we played for the next hour and a half before her morning nap. After her nap, she ate again, and we played until Daddy came home.
Summer School has started. Jim teaches one class, but it meets from 8am to noon. He got home, ate lunch, and we got ready to go run some errands before it was time for Sera's afternoon nap. As I passed by the front door, I noticed that half of the tree in front of our house was lying in the front yard towards the road. What?!?!?
Jim went outside to take a look. The tree, one of three growing side by side, was split all the way up and part of it had broken off. He got on the phone and found a tree service who agreed to come this afternoon. They arrived about 2:30. The guy told Jim that the other half looked like it would be okay. They cut down the broken part, loaded up and were gone in about 15 minutes. It was the most amazing thing I'd seen.
At 4pm as I was feeding Sera an early dinner, I heard a small thud. I looked out the front window and saw nothing but branches on the front porch. The rest had fallen. Luckily, it didn't damage the house when it came down. Jim called the tree service again, and he made it back around 7pm. Another 20 minutes and you can't even tell a tree was ever there.
While he was here, I had the tree guy walk the rest of our property with me. He told me what kind of trees we had. We had no clue. We have four sassafrass trees, one of which needs to come down. He said it's too close to the house and the roots will start to damage the foundation. The others are far enough away. We also have four wild cherry trees. We had five. The one that came down was also a wild cherry. We knew it had some kind of berry on it, but we never knew what they were. The tree guy says they make a great jelly, but they're really tart and need lots of sugar. They'll all eventually need to come down. He said they're rogue trees and the contractor shouldn't have left them. Between this and the sassafrass tree, he basically said our contractor was an idiot. I can't argue with that.
Then he ran to the back of our lot in ecstasy. We have a grove of small trees back there. I'm always asking Jim if he's sure they're trees and not weeds. They're still that small. The tree guy looked at them and told me it was our college fund for Sera. They're black walnut trees. He said they should start bearing nuts in about 5 years. They'll reach full maturity in about 20-25 years. At that time we can sell them for lumber. He sold one from his backyard last year for $8000.00. Apparently black walnut is a highly coveted lumber.
He also recommended that I go to arborday.org. Join for $10, and you get 10 free trees. He told me to get the pink flowering crabs. Sounds like a bad medical diagnosis, doesn't it? He also told me that when I want to buy plants for the yard to give him a call. As a service to his clients, he will meet us at the nursery, recommend plants and pass on his 40% discount. Based on what he charged to take down the one tree and how many more he said we should take down over the next 3-5 or 5-10 years, I can see why he offers this service. Keep his customers happy with the little things and we'll call him when the trees fall.
He was very nice, prompt, and efficient. He even knocked $100 off the bill for telling us the other half would be okay when it wasn't.
The pictures are on Jim's camera, so I'll have to add them later.
Summer School has started. Jim teaches one class, but it meets from 8am to noon. He got home, ate lunch, and we got ready to go run some errands before it was time for Sera's afternoon nap. As I passed by the front door, I noticed that half of the tree in front of our house was lying in the front yard towards the road. What?!?!?
Jim went outside to take a look. The tree, one of three growing side by side, was split all the way up and part of it had broken off. He got on the phone and found a tree service who agreed to come this afternoon. They arrived about 2:30. The guy told Jim that the other half looked like it would be okay. They cut down the broken part, loaded up and were gone in about 15 minutes. It was the most amazing thing I'd seen.
At 4pm as I was feeding Sera an early dinner, I heard a small thud. I looked out the front window and saw nothing but branches on the front porch. The rest had fallen. Luckily, it didn't damage the house when it came down. Jim called the tree service again, and he made it back around 7pm. Another 20 minutes and you can't even tell a tree was ever there.
While he was here, I had the tree guy walk the rest of our property with me. He told me what kind of trees we had. We had no clue. We have four sassafrass trees, one of which needs to come down. He said it's too close to the house and the roots will start to damage the foundation. The others are far enough away. We also have four wild cherry trees. We had five. The one that came down was also a wild cherry. We knew it had some kind of berry on it, but we never knew what they were. The tree guy says they make a great jelly, but they're really tart and need lots of sugar. They'll all eventually need to come down. He said they're rogue trees and the contractor shouldn't have left them. Between this and the sassafrass tree, he basically said our contractor was an idiot. I can't argue with that.
Then he ran to the back of our lot in ecstasy. We have a grove of small trees back there. I'm always asking Jim if he's sure they're trees and not weeds. They're still that small. The tree guy looked at them and told me it was our college fund for Sera. They're black walnut trees. He said they should start bearing nuts in about 5 years. They'll reach full maturity in about 20-25 years. At that time we can sell them for lumber. He sold one from his backyard last year for $8000.00. Apparently black walnut is a highly coveted lumber.
He also recommended that I go to arborday.org. Join for $10, and you get 10 free trees. He told me to get the pink flowering crabs. Sounds like a bad medical diagnosis, doesn't it? He also told me that when I want to buy plants for the yard to give him a call. As a service to his clients, he will meet us at the nursery, recommend plants and pass on his 40% discount. Based on what he charged to take down the one tree and how many more he said we should take down over the next 3-5 or 5-10 years, I can see why he offers this service. Keep his customers happy with the little things and we'll call him when the trees fall.
He was very nice, prompt, and efficient. He even knocked $100 off the bill for telling us the other half would be okay when it wasn't.
The pictures are on Jim's camera, so I'll have to add them later.
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