Day 3

I know it doesn't look like much has changed, but several of the large problematic trees, stumps, and fallen logs have now been removed. In fact, the pictures make it look messier than yesterday. I took the pictures before the grader was done for the day. He should have it all cleaned up, smoothed out, and ready to cut in the house footprint tomorrow. There are still a few trees we would have liked to see ripped out, but the contract only covered so much clearing. Dustin will have to go in with his chainsaw to whack down all the smaller trees and clean out miscellaneous clutter. Overall, I'm excited with how the lot is shaping up. We still have plenty of trees left for shade, privacy, and of course, curb appeal. And we are lucky that most of the trees came in to bloom and leaf this last week, so we could get a better idea of what they will look like. We saved some trees that we might have not have during the winter. I still need to figure out what species a few of them are.

It was fun hanging out at the lot today with Owen and Alivia. Once again, the kids loved playing in the dirt and watching the bulldozer do its work. And best of all, we met our next door neighbor on the west side. They have two girls, about Owen's and Alivia's age. They invited us over to play for a while. It was so fun making new friends! Their older girl will be in Owen's kindergarten class this fall.


This giant stump was a tree that had been chopped down previously. It took the grader about a half hour to dig this thing out. I wish I had something there for scale. It's at least as tall as me, about 5 feet.