![\"Backyard](\"http:\/\/derekandevonne.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/img_0699.jpg\" "\\"img_0699\\"")
<\/a>Backyard Oct 08<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Backyard Oct 08<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Backyard Oct 08<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>backyard Oct 2008<\/p><\/div>\n
We decided to bring in a landscaper to see what they would recommend.\u00a0 Maybe take down a tree and see if we can level out the yard and bring the grass back to the point where I could practice putting on it.<\/p>\n
The landscaper takes a look and recommends we take down the 2 trees to the east, and the one big tree on the NW corner.\u00a0 When they took down 1 tree, it showed signs of inner rot…\u00a0 and if 1 tree shows signs of rot, then there is a chance that the other trees could also be sick, yet show no outward signs of being so.\u00a0 Down came the trees and 2 out of 3 show signs of rot.\u00a0 They then recommed we take down the 2 trees by the deck.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At this point, the cost of taking down all these trees were a lot more than we had anticipated when we bought the place.\u00a0 The inspector said they looked ok, but it’s hard to tell without bringing in an expert.\u00a0 The danger is if the trees are not balanced (leaning to one side) and if they are sick, then it just takes a wind or snowstorm to knock them down… into the house.<\/p>\n
So we decide to take them all down.<\/p>\n
<\/a>tree stump<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>goodbye trees<\/p><\/div>\n
Then came winter, and the worst snowstorm in 10 years.\u00a0 Our yard looked like this.<\/p>\n
<\/a>snow!<\/p><\/div>\n
In hindsight, it was a good call to take down the trees given the heavy snowfall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When spring finally came, we had to decide what to do with the yard.\u00a0 Basically it was cleared out, but it was also a mess and not safe to play in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A winter with a hyper toddler also gave us incentive to create a safe yard to boot the kids outside and burn off some energy, and save our sanity.\u00a0 Therefore we decided to dig up all the stumps and try to do something about that rock.\u00a0 We hired a backhoe to come in and do the work, and our yard ended up looking like this-<\/p>\n
<\/a>Mighty machines!<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>504 paving stones removed<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Mass destruction<\/p><\/div>\n
The backhoe trampled over everything, and ripped out all the stumps, but could not turn over the big rock.\u00a0 In the process, what little grass we had was pretty much destroyed.\u00a0 We then had to bring in dirt to level out the yard and lay sod.<\/p>\n