Parting is such sweet sorrow...

Today was an eventful day for us!

Our morning began with "mourning" as we had to say goodbye to our big pine tree in our front yard. The poor old thing has been there for over twenty years, ten of which we have enjoyed, since that's how many years we have lived here. It has served us well over the years, not only for it's wonderful shade, but also as home to many chirping birds and our old "Charlie"rooster who would perch on it's limbs every night. It was also home to our tree swing, which has been there ever since we moved in. That tree swing has swung dozens of people over the years and has given a lot of joy and laughter.

Additionally, this tree has brought many memories to our family, including Mikki's carpet tree house (our youngest son, and our little "monkey-boy" who climbed to the top and left a piece of carpet up there for his "special" place). This is also one in the same tree that TJ was trimming when he fell and broke his wrist!(Our only broken bone with all three boys, so far, Praise God!)

Alas, it's body has become decayed with dry-rot and bug damage, so it had to be cut down and turned into sawdust and firewood.


Final glimpses:

The last ride ever on our tree swing, and the last picture of our tree still standing!

Progress picture

The tallest branches getting whacked off!

The man cutting off all of the branches. At this point he said he noticed a lot of neighbors watching the process!

Getting down to the "bare bones" (Taming the Giant)

The last major cuts before...Timmmmberrr! (Below)

THUDDDDD! Below, cutting the stump off

Below, the tree cutting and clean-up crew! A bunch of Samoan guys from a local Seventh Day Adventist Church that were hired to do the job

And last but not least, the end result... BYE BYE OLD FRIEND! Our tree is all gone!

What took God twenty-plus years to grow and mature, man had it chopped down, cleaned up and turned into firewood in about three hours, start to finish!

We went to hear our friends, Greater Vision, sing in El Cajon tonight. It was good to see Gerald Wolfe again, as he had sponsored Mitch to attend Stamps Baxter years ago. Their group did a great job, as usual! Their new tenor is a very nice young man, only two years older than our Ben!

It was very odd to pull into our driveway when we arrived home. It almost seems like we pulled into the wrong drive, not having our big tree there out front anymore!! Guess we're gonna have to find some other adventure to entertain our visiting guests now- no more tree singing!