When a tree falls in the woods

One of the features of this property and area that sold us is the trees. Whereas most of central Indiana has been cleared farm land for generations, we're in a nice forest of mature trees. We haven't identified most of them yet (kind of hard to do when all you can see is the bark in winter), but there's definitely a lot of oak, maple, and hickory. They're beautiful, they make the house and yard more private, they bring lots of wildlife within view, they provide a windbreak, they will save us a ton on cooling costs in the summer, they make the air cleaner, and they give us firewood, so it's a pretty sweet deal all around. We estimate that many of the trees on our property are about 100 feet tall, which is a crazy height when you're used to seeing little 20-foot trees that the city planted between the streets and the sidewalks.

But one of the not-so-good features of this property is that it's almost entirely wooded, which is a problem when you hope to grow all your own produce. Our best bet for a large garden is an area that was cleared two owners ago. It's big enough, but it still has trees on all sides, and the man we bought the house from scoffed at the idea of doing a garden there because of the shade. I took the following pictures in mid morning in February, so the shadows are longer than they will be in midday in the growing season. But of course there are no leaves here casting shade, either.

So as much as killing trees pains us -- and the cost is pretty painful, too -- we had to get three trees taken down. We picked out the ones that cast the worst shade, which unfortunately were pretty close to the power lines running up the driveway. After many debates on the safety (or lack thereof) and practicality (or lack thereof) of Mike taking them down himself, we opted for a professional tree service. 

The crew was incredibly fast, even when they dropped a huge piece of the trunk right onto the power lines, snapped them off, and had to take a long break while the power company came out to fix it. We were all extremely lucky that no one got hurt and nothing really hard to fix got broken (like the power poles), but Mike said it didn't help my argument about using a professional service being way safer than going it alone.

When we weren't being concerned and annoyed about the power lines, we were mostly feeling sad. These trees were about 60 years old, and it sucks to be responsible for ending that life. They were growing there before our house (or any of the houses in the area) was even built. We're still sad about it, actually. But it was a necessary evil. If we can't have a big garden here, we'll have to move. And we really, really don't want to move.

At the end of the day, we were left with a very large pile of logs and branches to deal with. I wish a person was in this picture to provide some scale, because this is seriously a lot of wood. We haven't bought a chainsaw yet because 1) we have to research which one to get, 2) the sufficiently powerful ones cost hundreds of dollars and I just quit my job, and 3) they scare me and I'm putting it off.

But eventually we'll get one and make lots and lots of firewood. Since our woodburning stove is so awesome (that's another blog post), we'll be able to avoid using the furnace most of the winter, savings gobs of electricity. And that will make me feel a little less guilty, like it all comes to good in the end. What a hippie.