Cutting Down Trees

We had a few small junk trees around the yard that were blocking the growth of some great pine trees so we set to work on Saturday to remove them. Now lest you think ill of us, we have planted over 20 new trees in our yard since we moved in, so hopefully that will offset the damage we have just done to the environment. But we did it all without the pollution of a chainsaw so maybe that will keep us in good standing with you all. Although we do plan to burn the wood next spring and thus pollute the air then. But we promise not to burn it this winter when we are having an inversion. Jaxson was very excited about getting to use an ax for its real purpose and went to work on that little tree. It took Blake and each of the kids taking a turn to bring that tree to the ground. It is true we put a gate to the horse pasture there and meant to take that tree out long ago

The kids worked really hard and cut up the tree trunks into pieces that would fit into the fire pit next year. We kept lots of the little stuff too so it will be easy to start a fire when it is all dry in a year or so. The kids wanted to have a fire that night, but Blake explained that green wood does not burn well.

The kids all decided that they are glad to live in modern times with power tools, houses built by other people and they would not like to do this project ever again. But we do have two plum trees that need to be taken out so we may get the chance to use what we learned on this first experience. Jaxson wanted one of those cool two man saws that they use in church history movies. All we had was this one man saw, but it did have a very sharp blade.

When we arrived at the ward soup and scone night the kids wanted to know why they didn't get to bring carved pumpkins for the contest like some of the other kids. Then they realized it was because they had to work all day long out in the yard chopping up trees. But it is also because their mother forgot about the contest.