The Project - Week 12: A Tree Grows in our Back Yard

 It seems that most of this week we worked outdoors. How wonderful! (Except on Sunday when the wind was howling and it was a bit chilly... but, we had to get the trees in the ground.)

This week we:

• planted the 3 trees my hubby found at the market AND the 5 trees we bought in the field. Most of the trees are 2" - 3" in caliper. We have it down to a science. My hubby's 'lawn mower on steroids' is able to lift the root ball. I hold the tree trunk and we march in a procession to the hole - which is mostly dug by the tractor. Since his tractor can't go quite deep enough we have to finish off the last 8 - 10" by hand.
• wrestled with the rose bushes. I clipped them back to areas of green - well, some didn't have so much green - they may have to be replaced. I also cut suckers from three existing crab apple trees.
• got sunburned! Hooray! The weather was beautiful for working outside - and while the cabinet guys were there, we didn't want to get in their way.
• were enthused by seeing our kitchen cabinets in place and looking beautiful, but sad because they couldn't do the master bath cabinets.
• moved drain pipes in the master bath so that on their next trip the cabinets can be installed!
• finally finished the wood floor.... well, with the exception of three threshold strips to install. My estimate in last week's post of 15 minutes to finish was a tad bit off. It took us about 2 hours as each piece needed precise measuring and cutting.
• had the refrigerator installed - woohoo! We can have cold drinks now!
• cut tile for the design that will go on the front of the tub enclosure 

 Trees waiting to be planted.

We picked these out in the field last month.

They were dug and wrapped late last week.

Hubby on the 'lawn mower on steroids' preparing a hole for a tree.

Most of the trees were planted where 

existing dead trees were removed.

Even so, the dead trees had to be pushed over, the wire cages

had to be removed and the holes had to be enlarged.

Tucker decides to try a hole on for size.

The stump of the former resident is seen to the left.

It was so sad to have to remove 25 dead trees.

Digging the hole a little bit deeper. 

 No... the hole really isn't 4 feet deep. I just decided to play 

around by getting on my knees to make it look really deep!

4 of 8 trees planted this week are circled.

There are three existing trees in the photo as well. 

The Australian pine on the left will survive. The other two, on the

right are an oak and maybe a Honey Locust. We don't 

know if they will make it - and if they do, they will 

probably be very stressed and stunted for years to come.