A Bushel of Bushes

Woo!  Cutting down bushes is hard work, and I haven't even tried pulling out the stumps yet!

I have decided that I don't like how my backyard is divided in 2 by a line of bushes and flowerbeds.  It is quite deceiving because my yard looks smaller than it actually is. (Yes, bad grammar.) Some people didn't even realize that our yard extends beyond the flowerbeds!  I want to change this by getting rid of the bushes and some of the flowers.  Over the holiday weekend, I was able to finish cutting down the forsythia bush and another bush I call the burning bush because it bloomed red in the spring.  Both of these bushes were extremely overgrown.

Here is a picture what is left of the forsythia bush.

It put up quite a fight, and I have a lot of scratches on my arms to prove it.  It makes me look like I own a cat that needs declawed.  : p   Now that the forsythia bush is gone, we can actually see the white oak that was hidden behind it.

I was so pumped after cutting down the forsythia bush, that I started on the burning bush that same day.  If I had known just how tedious and frustrating the burning bush was going to be, I might have procrastinated.  I had thought that the forsythia bush was a pain, but this other bush was worse.  It had no main trunk, but was made up of individual smaller trunks that were all interwined.  It took me a good 2 days to get it cut down.

Here is a pic after Day 1's efforts.

Believe it or not, this bush was twice as big before I started.

Here is what it looks like now.

We didn't even know that tree was there until after I started cutting down the bush!

About a week or two ago, I was working on the forsythia bush when Jim came up to me and told me he was going to look around the house to formulate a plan for cleaning the 2nd story gutters.  I didn't think much of it and continued my trimming.  Next thing I know, I look up to see this!

Jim with a ladder precariously perched on my craft room roof!

I of course scolded him and told him to wait for me to help him.  We spent the rest of that afternoon cleaning gutters.  They were pretty stuffed with maple seeds, so it was good that we cleaned them before the recent storms came through.