We introduced you to our jungle
where you saw a cluster of trees in our backyard that looked like this …
The funny thing is, in the picture above we actually had grass. Barely 2 weeks after taking this picture – due to the lack of sun from our ever-growing trees – that grass quickly died and our yard turned into a pile of dirt.
Anyone with kids knows that cleaning them up after playing outside for hours requires loads of laundry and cleaning the floors – and with our yard it was 10x that.
We had multiple companies come out and give us a quote for our backyard, all of which were far off the price range that we wanted to spend – or even capable of budgeting for at the moment. So we sucked up our hopes of having a large grassy backyard for the boys + faced the music that one tree would have to go at a time, giving us years to separate the cost.
Lucky us we have insane family members that wanted (literally they were excited) to help us tackle our backyard in
ONE day.
Here are some of the before pictures to give you a better idea of what our front/backyard looked like prior to our lumber jack experience.
Yuck – am I right?
This outdoor area was progressively getting worse by the hour. With each leaf falling we knew this back yard was one that we needed to tackle before the winter came. The trees were tall – really tall. Like “Um, are we going to hit the fence when they drop?” tall.
A lot of the tallest trees were directly up against the back of our house. So, if your thinking we are cruel with cutting these trees down – trust me, it was more for safety + preserving our house than anything. We’ve put a pretty penny into basement work already + we’ve been told SO many times that the trees and lack of sunlight are just making everything worse.
We had 17 trees total to tackle – we assumed it was going to take a few weekends to get it done.
Little did we know Dan’s Uncle was actually the Incredible Hulk – and let me tell ya, that guy sliced and diced these trees like a butcher.
These guys were glowing over the chance to get down with their tools.
The day came and went faster than the trees crashed to the ground!
Our driveway was set with leaf blowers, chain saws, a four-wheeler for hauling + plenty of supplies – these guys were the real deal.
We were so fortunate to of scheduled this day on one of the amazing 70* October days!
Each tree that dropped to the ground made the loudest bang – stopping everyone in their tracks. Besides the guys that had to pull and guide the tree down into the right direction!
One by one the trees were cut down – each tree than chopped up and tossed into a pile, later to be cut into fire wood.
Thank goodness for this because we having fires in our family room all the time lately!
I’ll jump straight to the good stuff — the final results! ALL 17 trees were tackled that gorgeous October day.
I was FAR too excited to see this yard take a turn for the better (it’s a process)
Even the clarity we have above our garage is a HUGE difference. I cannot begin to even explain the difference we have in sunlight that pours into our house now. I told you guys before how our house felt way to dark around the clock – we no longer have that issue and it has been amazing!
We have PLENTY of cleaning up to go – Dan and his dad spent this past Saturday with a wood chipper tackling the massive branch piles you see above. Next weekend we will grind the stumps and the entire yard down – so that in the Spring, we will be ready to plant grass!
WAHOO!!!!!
After everything came down – this beauty right behind our fence stood out – and I could not be happier to have this one sticking around.
One more before and after, shall we?
It’s like a fresh pair of shaved legs after going days without. I’m feeling fresh –
A massive thank you to our family who helped and hung out that day. There was not enough food or beer or hugs that could show our gratitude to what you did for our family.
WE LOVE YOU GUYS!
It looks awesome guys! Way to go!!