Two Down and One To Go

Two years ago we woke up one morning to our backyard cedar tree laying on our garage after a wind storm. We chopped it up and hauled it away and planted a little peach tree in it's place. This Saturday we took out a second cedar tree. This one was planted just to close to the house and looked like it was growing into our house. When I told Luke our plan to cut it down he cried and tried to talk us into keeping it. "No mom! I love that tree! It shades me! Don't cut him down!" (all said with tears streaming down his cheeks) Poor little Luke. I was sad to see it go too, but I knew it had to be done sooner or later. Grandma Barker and Rice came out to help us. Emmy came out after work and we all enjoyed a fun tree cutting party/barbecue.

Saying goodbye to our poor tree. It sure smelled good when we cut it down. It will make for some nice smelling backyard wienie roasts in the future.

And now in it's place is a pretty Japanese maple. I'm excited to see how it looks this summer with leaves on it.:)

The last cedar tree left in the yard is a HUGE one. Our sweet 9o year old neighbor, who was born in the house we live in, told us the story behind the big old tree. His father was a brick mason and had done some work on a man's home. The man ended up not being able to pay for the work, but later brought a small cedar tree down from the near by canyon as payment. Now many many years later it is home to Luke and Ava's little tree house and it shades half our backyard. We love it and unless it falls on the house (knock on wood) it will probably be here to stay.