A (Giant) New Tree

Ever since the plum tree in the back yard finally bit the dust in 2006, we've talked about replacing it with a nice shade tree for the northeast side of the yard. Well, last weekend we finally did it.

Gramma and I were at our favorite garden store when we noticed discount tags hanging from some lovely trees. Always on the lookout for a bargain, we perused the on-sale trees and found a beautiful 20 foot red maple that we agreed would be perfect in the back yard (and, yes, we did call the guys before making said purchase to make sure that a 40 cubic foot hole would fit into their weekend plans).

Getting it home was no small task - thank goodness for Rainy! Fortunately, the store is only a couple of miles from home and the guys could take side streets the whole way home with Spike holding the tree in place as it stuck out of the back of van. And the fun was just beginning :)

The tree finally made it through the arbor and was expertly placed to afford shade in the summer while still leaving a nice grassy spot on the right hand side of the yard for lawn sports. Then the guys went to work. I know that it will come as a great surprise to all, but apparently Orem has very rocky soil! I know, who'd have thunk that living in the mountains would put lots of rocks in our foundation.

Steve and Poppop heroically hacked, shoveled, and pick-axed their way through it all and by Sunday night we had a brand new, gorgeous tree in the back yard. Granted, right now it just looks like a really tall collection of sticks, but she's already budding for spring and George at the nursery assured us that she'll be ready for climbing in around eight years! And Sam very enthusiastically found plans for tree stakes that you could mow over, so he, Steve, and Poppop spent the better part of Sunday constructing a fabulous support system for our new tree - she's a well cared for tree, that's for sure!

We'll be sure to upload another picture once our new tree has leaves!