free trees!

Hey guys, do you remember when you were in 2nd grade and you got to bring home your very own tree to plant on Arbor day? I remember when we planted mine, I was wearing black and pink bike shorts and jelly shoes. Typical fashion choices of the 90's. Yikes.

Well sorry, you are not getting a free baby tree from me today.
But, you can make a $10 donation to The Arbor Day Foundation and receive 10 free trees that will grow where you live.

I chose 10 free flowering trees.

• 2 White Flowering Dogwoods
• 2 Flowering Crabapples
• 2 Washington Hawthorns
• 2 Eastern Redbuds
• 2 Goldenraintrees

But they have a bunch of other choices for you too.  A $10 six month membership fee also includes discounts on other trees. But it's at least 10 bucks for just one flowering dogwood tree. 10 bucks for 10 trees is a deal!

I figure it's the least we can do since we cut down so many trees to clear the land for the house. This is the link. They are shipping in the midwest, and just about everywhere else right now! This year Arbor Day is on April 27! Plant a tree :)

Did you get to bring home an arbor day tree in grade school too? Did you make questionable fashion choices?

Pretty trees.

Although most of the land is covered in big beautiful trees. I still feel sorta bad for cutting a portion of them down. Especially the really beautiful ones.  We are going to try to keep as many trees as possible.

We are keeping the lane/driveway narrow.  When we made the path for the lane, we decided to also make it curve so that you won't be able to see much of the home from the main road.  We were also able to save many of the older and larger trees by curving around instead of plowing straight through.

We haven't cut down many trees where the house will be yet...since we still have not finalized the house plans. Once we do that, we will know the exact measurements and can clear that area.

One thing we do know, my favorite tree will have to go. We are pretty sure it's right smack where my kitchen will be.

Favorite tree.

Bye Bye Trees.

Over the past few weeks we've been taking down trees where we will have the lane put in. Not just a few trees either. Adam has been out there most evenings after work, and most of the weekends.

First, we went through and marked all the trees that would come down. 

Bright orange spot = bye bye tree.

There were mostly small trees and bushes that we had to rip out, but plenty of large ones as well.  At first, I felt sorta bad about cutting down all the beautiful trees. But, it's not like we are cutting all of them down. We will still be surrounded by woods after the home is built.

Lumberjack.

Our friend Andy stopped by to help. He's also building a home in the area with his wife. It was nice to have some help and talk housebuilding too. They are a few steps ahead of us in the process.

Two lumberjacks.

Obviously, Scout was helping.

 We left the stumps so they can just be ripped right out later when the lane is put in. Scout is sticking his tongue out in this photo because he just chased a deer and was not even close to being as fast as that Bambi for one second.

This is what it looked like after the first few days. This actually is major progress. Although it still looks pretty much like a jungle from this photo.

Clearing the Bush.

Adam told me a few weekends ago that his dad was going to help him "bushhog" to get rid of some of the bush out there. I took this as clearing a path so we could take a walk on the land.

Father-in-law & Adam's little bro workin' hard.

Well, that's not really what it meant. Little did I know, it's about the same as cutting the grass:

See? The grass is cut. Thanks boys!

It does look really nice, and the best part is when you cruise past you can see where are land starts and where it ends. But I am ready to get those trees cleared out!

What it looks like now.

I mentioned that the land was all trees and brush and stuff.  Hard to believe there will be a house here next year.

There's Adam doing measuring/surveying.

I helped. See.

Measuring tools.

I said there is a creek. Bishop Creek.

Adam explained to me that having a part of Bishop Creek on your property is prime real estate in this area. Fancy.

Scout enjoyed the fancy creek too.

Wet dog.