TimBERRRRRrrrrrrrrr!!!

...and the trees come crashing down!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and has a safe New Year's Eve!

Dad came out yesterday and the day before and we hit the task of knocking down trees in a big way (I got a chainsaw for Christmas -- thanks Mom and Dad! -- and so we had two saws going both days).

We knocked down somewhere around a dozen trees in those two days, varying in size from smallish ones near 4" in diameter all the way up to the biggest one so far at around 30" in diameter.

The trees would come down and we'd use Dad's truck to pull them out to the front of the woods (near the wood pile)

The growing wood pile and Dad taking a break

for cutting and easier piling, while all the brush and limbs from the trees were put on the brush pile to the left of the above pic (both pics above were taken early in the day yesterday.. both piles are much larger now!).

...and an already large brush pile...

There's still a ton of trees that need cutting, including three very large trees that are about 24" in diameter each.... probably the tallest of which is "Robin's Tree";  it's simply the nicest tree on the lot, it's pretty much exactly in the middle of our proposed house plan, and Robin is very sad to see it have to go (we would have to move the house soooooo far back on the lot to save this tree that it would cause other issues to do so).

That's Robin's Tree at the very center of this pic!

 We measured the length of smaller diameter (about 12") and somewhat shorter tree that we knocked down yesterday in an attempt to figure out how tall Robin's Tree is;  The tree we measured is right around 75' tall... and our best guesses based on standing height is that Robin's Tree is around 90' tall! (that thing is going to make a huge crash when it comes down!)

Dad is thinking about maybe visiting the lot again today and possibly knocking down Robin's Tree, so since Robin had to work yesterday the girls said goodbye to the tree for her:

Lyndsey, Rachel, and Robin's Tree

 The girls have been out on the lot both days with us and have had an absolute blast roaming around the woods and playing the entire time! (and getting absolutely filthy both days! lol)

Also, in other big news not involving cutting trees down... the builder (Dennis) and I sat down on the 23rd and went over the bids that came in for the revised/downsized floor plan. I have yet to sit down and go through the bids line by line (that's my project for tomorrow), but the overall price means that it looks like we have our plan set! We haven't signed a contract with Dennis yet, but more than likely will in the very near future.

Then the single biggest thing we have to do for the next month and a half is get our current home decluttered and cleaned up so that we can put it up for sale in late February.

We already have a decent amount of boxes and items in the storage garage, but that's only a small part of what will be in there by the time we put the house up on the market.

Paul