A Better View.... We Axed for It!

Wuh wuh wuh... bad pun, right?   :-)
On the brighter side (literally), we finally have a full view of the lake now and a more manicured, less disheveled-looking yard!
After seven years of "talking about it", we finally had our neighborhood "tree guy" remove some trees, shrubs, and trim large branches.

He removed a dead evergreen from the back of the property, some volunteer trees that were mixed into the evergreens that divided our property and the neighbor's (which were also overlapping and killing our nice adolescent oak tree), another volunteer that was calling the lilac bush area home, cleaned up the back corner of the property (where there were large overgrown sucker and volunteer trees - a total mess!), and trimmed a myriad branches from our other large trees (alleviating issues with branches on the rooftops of the house and garage, plus giving our other neighbors relief from branches that hung low onto their property).

But... the "piece de' resistance" (and a seemingly daunting task) was the removal of the 30'ish foot evergreen that was located smack dab in front of our house, impeding on a large part of our lake view.   Let's call her "Lola".  She was a large, full, and beautiful tree and it was a bittersweet decision.    RIP Lola.  Thank you for your sacrifice.  Your wood will be enjoyed for many future campfires.

To put it into perspective, Nick, our tree guy, is not a small dude; he's probably about 6'2".

We hadn't ever had a view of the lake from our bedroom and most of the view from the kitchen and dining area was non-existent.    From the inside of the house, it's like night and day!  We love our "new view".

Old View:

(This picture is of Connor and his walleye in 2012.)

(Here is Eric and a big ol' carp that fought like a rock star - which, incidentally, got thrown back into the lake.)

New View:

From the Lake... Old view:

New View:

Yes, we have a flag pole!  There was never any reason to have a flag flying before, since it couldn't be seen from anywhere.  I'll be buying a flag, a cable, and a solar spotlight soon to show our patriotism (sub-project #2).

Sub-project #1: Much of our Memorial Day weekend was spent dragging large tree branches into a pile (Nick the Tree Guy's chipper broke down towards the end - darn it!), dragging the larger limbs and cutting them into firewood, and burning some of the dead branches.  Sidenote: Ramsey was in "stick heaven" with "treasures" being found everywhere.

Nick still needs to come back this week to remove the stumps (and chip the leftover branches that couldn't be burned - once his chipper is fixed) and then we can mark this project wrapped.

Next project:  Leveling ground and then installing a new wooden play set for Ramsey!  Whoo hooo!
That project is already turning into much more than we had bargained for.  But, then again, don't they all?!?!