Monroeplanet: Backyard Breakdown

For several months now we have anticipating our backyard doomsday. We were told that the city was going to put a pipe through our backyard (just inside our woods). It was not a happy day. Tanner was outraged. He was not shy about voicing his emotions.

It took a while for the project to start (we were hoping it had been cancelled!). Unfortunately, it started about two weeks ago. First they came through with a trench digger. Then they put a fence into the trench. I was at the Fall Festival when they came through. My neighbor sent me a picture of what was going on.

When I got home I immediately went to the backyard to check out the fence. As I walked around I realized I couldn't see some of our sprinklers. I turned on our sprinklers to confirm my suspicions. Yep, you guessed it, they killed about three of our sprinklers. I called the supervisor in charge and he apologized and told me they would fix it the next day. I was very impressed with how nice they were and how quickly they fixed the sprinklers.

When Tanner got home from school and saw the fence he was very mad. He told me he was going to go outside and pull the fence out. I tried to talk some sense into him - it worked for a little while. Later I saw him drawing a picture. The picture was the grinder eating a tree with a devil on top of it. I guess my little talk did wonders for him!

The grinder came through our backyard next. Devon and Austin really liked watching the grinder. I was amazed at how quickly it ate up whatever was in it's path. It went through our backyard in no time. I was impressed an amazed at how strong some of the trees were. They didn't go down easy. Some very skinny trees were cut almost all the way through and yet they stood up straight and tall. It wasn't until the grinder put a significant amount of pressure onto the tree that it fell.

We were all sad to see the trees go, but when the grinder was done and the dust cleared, we were surprised to see that we still had some trees left. It actually has turned out nice. The project isn't done yet, but we have a little more yard and we still have some of our trees.

Before we had a straight line of trees, now we have a more natural looking woods. It looks like it will be nice when all is said and done! We are still trying to convince Tanner, but he is coming around.

Before

After

Tanner (and the other boys) have enjoyed playing in the dirt in the backyard. Tanner checked out one of the left over stumps. He tried to count the rings to see how old it was - he stopped at 60 and then said there were too many to count.