Up a tree

Adell in heaven

I always sort of assumed trees took care of themselves.
Of course I knew when we planted the trees in our yard that we had to be careful during the transplanting.
I knew we needed to water them regularly and keep the kids from climbing them before they were big enough to handle such attention.
So it has taken a while for Marc and I to wake up and realize they need professional attention and financial investment on a regular basis.
I started into the tree stuff after we got a little coupon in the mail for a discount on tree trimming. Since people had started to stop by and ask us why we weren't joyously harvesting the cherries the tree produced each year, we felt it was time to take some responsibility.
I called for an estimate.
The man came by and looked over two of our oldest trees, the cherry on the side and the big cottonwood that is towering over the house in the backyard.
Marc is happy that the cottonwood is growing so large and producing so much nice shade.
He didn't want any changes.
But the tree trimmer guy said we needed to take out a big front section unless we wanted it to fall on our house one day soon.
He said the cherry would be easy to thin out and suggested we raise the skirt a couple of feet.
He handed us an estimate for about $800.
Whew!
That was about $500 more than my best guess.
My sister-in-law suggested we check with a guy she uses for her trees.
His numbers were way better and so far we've been impressed with his work...though I couldn't watch while he whittled away at the cottonwood. It was like watching your child get his shots.
He and his helpers took out branches, deadwood and gave new shape and direction to both trees.
They made trees out of one that looked mostly like a big bush and called back the other that looked like it was out of control and reaching for the sky.
The only problem now is we've been told the cottonwood needs something called "cabling" to keep the tree from failure in the future.
We don't know yet how much that will cost.
We have a call in to an expert.
Meanwhile I'm sitting back and thinking.
Who knew that tree trims should be planned into the family budget?
I didn't. I thought God took care of trees.