Timber

 So it was a normal night. The kids were in bed and Joey and I were sitting in the den. He was watching TV and I was working on a blanket and watching with him. The front door was open and I kept hearing a rustling outside. I finally put down my blanket and turned to Joey and said "What is that sound?". At first we thought it was the kids still up but it was coming from the front yard.

We muted the TV and Joey walked over. It sounded like there was someone in our tree. Or something big was in our tree. A neighbor from across the street started yelling for Joey's attention and he went to get shoes on to head out to investigate. I walked over to the front door and as Joey walked out the door we heard a loud noise and a very very big branch of our fruitless mulberry tree hit the ground.

We were lucky it didn't cause any damage to anything or anyone. There were branches all over the ground and street. The commotion brought out a few neighbors. Before this we had never met anyone on our street. But that night a few of the guys on the block came out to help trim back the branches from the street. It was nice and neighborly.

We knew that we couldn't risk anymore of the tree falling. This thing was big and old. The canopy of it reached from our neighbor's yard, across our yard and to our driveway. We knew that we were going to have to get rid of it. The next day Joey made some calls and a tree trimming crew come out and got to work.

It took 3 days and cost $1050.00!!! In the end there was a lot of mulch and a stump in our yard. It is so strange. It makes our house look so different. Joey and I were both sad to see it go. As much as we hated the little fuzzies it dropped in spring, or the millions of yellow leaves in the fall. It was part of the backdrop to our lives together. We have taken many many family photos in front of that tree. In fact just a few days before I had taken Phi's first day of school picture right under it. Now that it's gone we have a view of our street and it has left us feeling so exposed. Like people can now really see our house and us.