How to save $700, and scare the crap out of your wife

O.k. We had this big, old tree right off our deck. It was sick. I had tried a couple things to try to nurse it back to health, but to no avail. It had to come down. After a couple bids of around $700, Brant took it upon himself to cut it down. I was a nervous wreck. Besides killing my husband, the tree, if landing any direction but the one it did, could have wiped out 1.) our house, 2.) our neighbor's house, 3.) our shed, 4.) our propane tank. Awesome odds. But Brant did great. The only damage was to an old split rail fence by the woods, and he had that fixed within the day.

The kids loved "climbing" this huge tree. They spent hours out there, until the tree diminished and their play space grew uncomfortably close to the chainsaw. I'm glad he cut it down, because once we got a view of its innards, it was short to this world. The entire middle was a soft, rotten mush.

Labor Day Weekend

Another long weekend, another project. We beefed up the firepit with some scavenged stones. It's more of a pit now. A bit safer than the push-your-sibling-straight-into-the-burnpile that we had before. I loved this project because it was free. That is number one on the scale of project love for me. Wow-factor for free!
While Brant and I worked on the pit, the kids made an "Indian village" on the back part of the trail. It's pretty well established for being created by 9 and 6-year-olds. *Note the fire pit that my little peas thought they would actually get to burn. I mean, they really envisioned burning that with all their neighbor buddies. I laughed so hard I almost peed. Really, ten small children and an open blaze? Really?! Still a great little set-up complete with cinder block benches, pallet shelf, and tarp tent. Genius.