One of the major selling points of the house for us was a huge Ash tree on the east side, between the house and the pond (to the left of the house, above). The limbs are huge and the lower ones gracefully dip toward the ground before turning back up toward the sky. It is a huge old beauty and the big window we put in the living room frames the tree view. It is the centerpiece of  the video I posted this summer when the cicadas were drowning out all other sound at the farm.

A second Ash, not nearly as large, but still a monster, stood—until just a few days ago—between the driveway and the road, near the mailbox, and didn’t look so good (you can see it in the photo above, between the loader and the road). With all the talk of the Emerald Ash Borer, we decided to have both trees checked out by a tree professional. Luckily, neither tree harbors the dreaded borer, but the guy confirmed that the one near the road was in rough shape and would need to come down. Sooner rather than later unless we wanted it to find it own way down…on the house, on my car, across the road, etc.

We decided that it should come down at our will rather than Mother Nature’s, and land where we wanted it to land. You are very welcome, homeowner’s insurance. We hired a local guy to take the Ash down. It was even bigger than either of us could have imagined!

Four of Ben could have fit on the stump of the smaller Ash!

The tree used to stand here, along the road between the mailbox and the evergreens.

Here’s the stump Ben is standing on, above.

The clean up is going to take us a while…

The tangle of limbs and small branches has peppered not only our yard, but also the road (which Ben promptly cleaned up) and the ditch across the road from our property!

I am happy to report that the huge Ash tree, the one that you can see the shadow of in the photo below, is healthy and strong and will hopefully stay that way for years to come! The smaller, unhealthy Ash will be firewood for us next winter and the choice pieces, like the one below, will become a wonderful surprise for the daughter of a friend who is a talented woodworker.

It is sad to say goodbye to such a wonderful living thing that has witness so many years at our farm. But I guess we all fall down sometime, right?