Trees

I'm not sure if you all know that Alicia is planning to come home in the spring and farm with us.  We are all so excited about this career change for her.  Her decision was not made lightly.  And our acceptance of her offer came with lots and lots of questions.  In the end, we all settled on the same conclusion.....that coming home to farm was just about the most exciting thing that has happened on our farm for a long, long time!

Alicia will finish out the concert season at the Gardner museum.  She has given notice to the museum, which they appreciated, knowing that her position will be hard to fill.  This means that she will be home mid May of 2017,

Now we find ourselves saying, "When Alicia gets home......!"  So many projects that we all want to do, beginning now with cleaning up the landscape around her future house.  This is the house I grew up in.  It is in need of some tender loving care, both inside and out, but we are all up to the task.

Last week, we began some of that care with some tree removal.  Alicia is looking forward to a large garden.  The fruit trees that dad planted years ago, have not been taken care of, so we decided to pull them all out to make room for the garden.  Sign up for your CSA now!!!

You can see the fruit trees on the left side of this photo.

I drove Kenny to the home place to pull out the trees.  

Reynald hooked the chain to the tree and I pulled!

We are going to have a bonfire in the spring, complete with a wienie roast and marshmallows!

There are several trees around the house that also need to be removed.  I am in the process of gathering tree removal bids from area contractors.  The old black locust trees have been on our list for years.  My brother wanted to take them out when we were in high school!  This is too big of a job for us, so we will call in the experts.

This is a pretty good shot of trees and house.  A good "before" photo.

Another image of the house and trees.  

We are going to keep the big maple tree that my grandpa planted in the late 20's, but the rest goes!

We may have to split the project in to a couple phases, but eventually I think we are going to take out most, if not all the windbreak as well.  We love being able to watch the sun set, and Alicia has expressed the same desire.

This is the north side of the house.  The black locust trees, and the wind break are slated for removal.

Lots of work ahead of us.  Some how we need to squeeze in a little farming too!