Last week I made a list of all of the projects I’d like to get accomplished throughout the course of 2024. The first item on the list was a monster of an undertaking and it was an item I’d be happy to take the whole year to complete.

We have around 60 fully grown pine trees on the property that were planted here before the house was even built. They are over 30 years old and tower high above the surrounding landscape. They were planted in a line that marks the property and in a row, three deep. The trees in the middle have seen much less sunlight and were beginning to die off, so I decided to take them all down on purpose to give the outside rows a fighting chance.

There were 20 trees to fell and last week we had some incredible warmth for the time of year and I saw an opening to really go for it. I got started early in the week and worked straight through, learning as I went. I made sure to plan each tree individually and had my escape routes ready in case the tree in question decided to act unpredictable. The outside rows acted as a wonderful protection from the falling tree and all of the various debris that fires out when they are in the process of falling. There were definitely issues that needed addressed and both of the batteries on the truck died within the first couple of days so I had to stop everything and replace them before continuing.

But after a week and a half of incredible weather and the blind determination that gets me into more trouble than it’s worth, I have taken down all 20 of the trees. A project that could have taken all year took me a week and a half and I honestly have no clue where that kind of gumption came from. I got so into the work that I didn’t look up until the last tree was on the fire.

Now it’s snowing and we have a few days of chilly weather and I can relax some of the pains away from all of the work. Once it’s warm again next week I’ll go out and clean up the remainder of the debris down to the pine needles and we’ll have an incredibly beautiful feature on the property. A massive pine tunnel with the canopy open throughout the middle all the way to the sky above.

I feel a sense of pride for what I accomplished and I’m not ashamed to admit it.